Kathmandu, August 3 The government is planning to issue a global tender for the much-hyped 2.35-kilometre-long Nagdhunga to Naubise tunnel road project within August 18. The Department of Roads (DoR) is planning to publish a tender notice for this project. “We have almost finalised tender documents for technical and financial proposals. We have already forwarded the final proposal of project to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is providing the loan for the project, for its final approval,” said Sanjaya Kumar Shrestha, deputy director general at DoR. “We have held several rounds of discussions with JICA to finalise the tender documents of the project and once we receive the confirmation from JICA, we will issue the tender notice,” he added. Shrestha informed the bid process and land acquisition procedure will be finalised and construction works will begin within four months of the tender being issued. “As per JICA’s working schedule, we will start constructing the three-lane tunnel road project by the beginning of 2019 and we expect to complete it by 2021.” JICA will provide loan assistance worth $141.41 million to Nepal for construction of the Nagdhunga to Naubise tunnel road project. The agreement for the loan assistance was signed by Nepali and Japanese government representatives in December, 2016. The loan is being granted at 0.01 per cent interest rate with a payback period of 40 years and has a possible grace period of an additional 10 years. The estimated cost of the project hovers around $188.19 million, of which $141.41 million is being covered by the official development assistance loan. This project — the first tunnel road project in the country — will be developed using cutting-edge technology from Japan. The government will be acquiring 267 ropanis of land in Nagdhunga area of Kathmandu and 109 ropanis of land in Dhading district. DoR has also finalised the compensation amount to be paid for the land to be acquired in Kathmandu, which ranges from Rs 0.9 million to Rs 4.2 million per aana. The compensation rate for land in Dhading has not yet been finalised. At present, the Nagdhunga-Naubise section of the Tribhuvan Highway is highly congested as Nagdhunga is the main entry and exit point of the Valley. The tunnel road project will shorten the 14-km distance of the section to 2.35 km after completion of the tunnel. The contractor of project will be selected under principle of international competitive bidding process. “We will be asking interested parties to submit both their technical and financial proposals simultaneously as per the principle of international competitive bidding process. We will only look into the technical proposals and examine if all the technical criteria have been fulfilled,” informed Shrestha. “The financial proposals will be forwarded to the Financial Comptroller General Office and it will only look into the financial proposal of the company which has been selected through the technical study.”