69745
THE WORLD BANK/INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION
OFFICE NENORANDUN
     DATE:   July 8, 1987

       TO=   Mr. McCarthy, Chief, Energy Transport Division

     FROM:   C.S. Nawathe, NDO     ~NV~
                                   VlI


SUBJECT:     ~ujara~   Ru~al Roads Project (Credit 1757-I~)
             ~edi~ing     Mission - Back-tQ-Office Report


1.       I visited Gujarat on July 3 and 4, 1987 with a view to
review the actions taken by G08 following the visit of the
supervision mission during the last week of May 1987.

2.       808 has now appointed a full time Superintending Engineer to
the Road Project Circle, Gandhinagar. Mr. J.C. Trivedi has taken
over the charge since the middle of June 1987. Mr. P.V. Patel, OeD
PPM Cell, has been replaced by Mr. K.A. Parekh. For both of them
this is their first promotion as Superintending Engineer. Earlier,
Mr. J.C. Trivedi has all along been working in the Designs Office and
has very little construction experience.   I had known Mr. Parekh when
he was in charge of the Command Area roads works under 8ujarat Major
Project (Cr. lOll-IN).   I have not found him to be resourceful or
energetic.   I fear that 808 has not taken adequate care in
appointing dynamic and eHperienced persons to these two key
positions.

3.       Although the eAR specifies exclusive field etablishment
headed by a Chief Engineer to handle the project, so far no proposal
has been initiated. Existing RP Circle is already having added
responsibility of preparing road projects for the entirestate. Out
of the 8 divisions working under it only 3 divisions (Gandhinagar,
Rajkot and Ahmedabad) are meant for the Bank's (rural road) project
and rest 5 divisions are engaged in surveys ~d designing pro~8Cts
for other works in the MBo-partment·.

4.       DEA's latt:er of June 23, 1987 asking for IltQal opinion of
the Advocate General of Gujarat has reached GOG on July 1. Mr.
Trivedi, Chief Engineer, has promised to take prompt action and send
the same to Delhi by a special messenger.

~.       808 has issued a tender notice for nine packages totalling
Rs. 33.437 million and 153.3 kms. The notice has been published on
June 13 in 3 8ujarati dailies (published from Ahmedabad, Rajkot and
Baroda) and on June 16, 1987 in one national paper (The Times of
India, Ahmedabad). Accordingly, the tender documents will be issued
upto July 12, 1987. The prebid conference is scheduled on July 13.
The bids, along with the concurrent prequalification documents, will
be received on July 27, 1987.
..

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                                          - 2
        6.       On enquiries with the BE I learnt that the tender documents
        are .till under print and will be ready in about a week's time (by
        July 10). GOG proposes to revise the program by issuing carigendum
        to the published notice. The revised dates will be a. below.

                   1.   Last date for the issue of bidding
                                                 documents        July 24, 1987

                   2.   Prebid conference to be held an           July 27, 1987

                   3.   Last date for the submis.ion of bids    AuQust 10, 1987

                   4.   Opening of the prequalificatian
                                                 document.      August 11, 1987

                   3.   Expiry of validity period on           November 09, 1987

        7.       The notice has been published in the Ahmedabad edition of
        the Time. of India.   I feel, that for wider publicity, notice
        should have been printed in all the 6 editions of the paper published
        from 6 different centres in India.  I have asked GOG to take this
        precaution while i.suinQ notice for advance prequalification.

        8.       During the FV 1987-89 (April 1, 1997 - March 31, 1988) GOG
        has budgetted Rs. 70 million for this project.  It would therefore be
        nece.sary that procuremant of civil works should be completed for
        packages costing a minimum of Rs. 200 million!   I have asked the
        Chief Engineer to furnish a detailed program for this prupose. All
        the 266 jobs (costing Ra. 347 million), which were given uMbrella
        administrative approval, are included in the state budget and can be
        started during this year.

        9.       R~8 Department is struggling to Qet FD's (Finance
        Departmant's) concurrence for the award of project monitoring job to
        ORG. The proposal is ,till shuttling between the two departments and
        is likely to be delayed further. ORG has also not yet been invited
        far negotiations as advised by the mission.

        10.      I have already sent ASPTR's letter dated June 22, 1987 to
        all concerned. ADB's document on prequalification of civil works'
        contractor. has also b.en sent to GOG. With regard to the guidance
        given by the Bank's Central Procuremnt Advisers (as incorporated in
        para 5 of the Aide Memoire dated May 23-30, 1987) are we to abandon
        the prequalificatian? In any ca•• , since the nature of road works is
        quite ,imple, it is not e.sential to prequalify the contractors
        (please see para 2.10 of the Bank's Guidelines for Procuremant under
        IDA Credits). Further advice in this regard would be appreciated.



        bee:   Hall, Mulligan, Lane

        CSNIZP
        H.4.1.13