The Taisei Corp of Japan received the much-awaited go ahead from the Cabinet last week to build the 32.5 kilometre long, third section of the Central Expressway, from Pothuhera, near Kurunegala, to Galagedera in Kandy.
The decision by the Cabinet culminated a year long tender process where Taisei was the only technically qualified bidder in the first round of the tender, but saw its bid rejected on the grounds of not submitting a bid bond for the project, estimated to cost over one billion US dollars, or just above 161.3 billion rupees.
The project, which will be the country´s most expensive and complex expressway project so far undertaken, will be a four-lane carriageway with an operating speed of 100km per hour from Pothuhera to Galagedera. According to the project description released by the Road Development Authority (RDA), the expressway section will “consists of four interchanges at Pothuhera, Polgahawela Interchange, Rambukkana and Galagedera and will contain 12 main bridges, and 17 viaducts across the floodplains of three major rivers; Rambukkan Oya, Kuda Oya and Kospothu Oya.”
According RDA sources, the cost of the project will be in two parts, the first, a construction tender for 100 billion yen, or approximately 900 million US dollars and the second a consultation and land acquisition part costing 150 million US dollars for a total of 1050 million US dollars, approximately 161.3 billion rupees. This is almost double the original estimate of 94.7 billion rupees made in 2016 by the RDA.
A 15-year yen denominated loan from the Tokyo-Mitsubishi bank at LIBOR plus 0.95% will finance the project. Yesterday´s (22 July) LIBOR – Yen for 12 months rate was 0.11786%, indicating an annualised total interest of just over 1.06%. The loan will have a six-year grace period and then will need to be repaid in nine years, in a total of 15 years.