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Cost of Amaila Falls Road skyrocketing…Final section alone pegged at US$13.5M
The Amaila Falls Access Road was originally pegged at US$15.4M to be undertaken in seven
A completed stretch of the Amaila Falls Access Road.
sections but the final section is currently costing taxpayers at least US$13.5M.
The road contract was initially handed to Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall’s Synergy Holdings Inc. who had budgeted section seven to be built at US$4.4M
Having completed 25 per cent of the work in that section at a cost of US$1.1M, he was fired in January 2012.
HN Pasha was then awarded a contract for US$4.1M to complete section seven of the Amaila Falls Road. That company was paid US$1.2 before that contract was terminated.
China Railway First Group was then awarded a contract for US$8.2M to finish section seven of the road.
This would have been after Fip Motilall completed 25 per cent of the work which was valued at US $1.1M and HN Pasha was paid US$1.2M for the work they did, but China rail is yet to complete section seven.
It was also recently revealed that in addition to the US$8.2M that was contracted with China Rail to build section seven, two plots of land were also given to the company as part of the agreement.
China Rail’s original bid was for US$11.2M. However, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) agreed that the price would be reduced to $8.2M as well as provide two plots of land.
By inference these two plots of land, a one acre plot at Liliendaal and a 7.5 acre plot at Friendship are worth US$3M.
Section seven of the road Amaila Falls therefore comes at a cost of US$13.5M, which is 87 per cent of the original contract price of US$15.4M to build the entire road, including a pontoon crossing between sections two and three along with a substantial bridge connecting section six to seven.
The road project is also currently woefully behind schedule.
The initial US$15.4M contract issued to ‘Fip’ Motilall which was initially inked in 2010 was also revised upwards by US$1.9M based on specifications provided by Sithe Global.
During the course of construction in 2012, the scope was revised after taking account of third party inspections of the terrain, environmental consideration, maintenance requirements and the detailed negotiation at the time with China Railway First Group.
This publication understands that the width of the road had to be increased from five meters to seven meters and the embankment had to be raised accordingly.
Motilall was paid a total US$5.8M before his contract was terminated.
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