LAHORE: The Punjab Masstransit Authority (PMA) has once again invited bids for operation and maintenance of services for the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train (from Ali Town to Dera Gujran).
According to media, the authority has set August 20 deadline for submission of bids, while a clarification meeting is scheduled for prospective bidders at PMA Head Office at Arfa Karim Tower on July 20.
Queries of the bidders (if any) for seeking clarifications in the tender documents, the authority advised, must be received in writing at PMA Office or emailed to the specified address on or before July 29.
The authority has also advised prospective bidders to download request for proposal (RFP) from the PMA or the Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) websites. Simultaneously, representatives of the bidders are advised to obtain data in soft form containing concept design, technical specification, drawings, maintenance manuals, product brochures and bill of quantities, which could not be uploaded on the websites due to size limitations from PMA Headquarters during office hours as this data forms an integral part of the RFP and it would not be possible for bidders to prepare bids without carefully reviewing its contents.
Bidding documents shows that all bidders have to submit a demand draft, pay the order, a bank guarantee of Rs18.5 million as bid security in favour of “The Punjab Masstransit Authority” issued by a scheduled bank.
The authority intends to initially contract for eight years, which can be extended upon mutual consent. The criterion laid out for bidders’ eligibility shows that any locally registered company or a foreign company with an established place of business in Pakistan, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) or Joint Venture (JV) complying with criteria given in bidding documents.
The bidder should have been registered for at least six years in a country of origin (in case of JV, applicable to anyone member) and has a valid registration certificate for income tax or possesses a corresponding equivalent certificate from the country of origin. The bidder should have been submitting income tax returns for the last three tax years or possesses corresponding equivalent documents from the country of origin (in case of JV, applicable to anyone member).
On the technical side, the bidder should have train operations experience of six metro line-years. Metro lines can be of any type from 1 to 4. The scope of the bidder in these Metro Lines must include complete train operations through centralised dispatching and supervision through command and control centre under the mainline signalling system consisting of an automatic train control system (ATC).
The prospective bidder should also have six metro line-years rolling stock maintenance experience and have provided complete services for maintenance of rolling stock for each of the entire metro line. In addition, six metro line-years maintenance of track is another prerequisite for securing the contract.
The bidder should also have five years of experience in high voltage substations (HVSS) and third rail traction supply system, two years of experience in power SCADA and low voltage power supply and illuminations.
It should also have five years of experience in ATC based train signaling system, two years of experience in radio-based communication system, public wireless system, fiber optic system, fire alarm system, building automation system, clock system, passenger information system and public address system, CCTV surveillance, visual control panels for train operations, access control system, telephone system, audio video recording system.
Operation and maintenance of various other systems, like two years of experience in firefighting system, HVAC system, escalators, elevators, platform screen doors, automatic passenger gates, water supply, sanitation and sewerage system, is also a prerequisite of winning bidder.
Earlier, the authority had invited bids for operation and maintenance of services for the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train (from Ali Town to Dera Gujran), but failed to attract a qualified bidder owing to stringent term and technical requirements, which resulted in that it had to cancel the tender.
