Brigadier General Bigyan Dev Pandey, spokesperson for NA, said six international consultant firms have been shortlisted to supervise the construction works. The project will be constructed as per the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.

According to Pandey, the shortlisted companies are joint venture of Yooshin Engineering Corporation Korea, Korea Expressway Corporation Korea and Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants Ltd, Korea; JV of China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co Ltd, PEC+S Deutschland Planning Engineering Consulting Service GmbH, Germany; and JV of SMEC International Pty Ltd Australia, Dongsung Engineering Co Ltd Korea, Korea Engineering Consultants Corp, Korea.

Similarly, joint venture of Reinhardt Pte Ltd Singapore, Kyong Dong Engineering Co Ltd Korea, and Korea Consultants International Co Ltd Korea; JV of Eptisa Servicios de Ingenieria SL Spain and Soosung Engineering Co Ltd Korea and JV of Dasan Consultants Co Ltd Korea, RITES Ltd India have also been shortlisted.

“We plan to select the best company among the six that have been shortlisted and also call a tender to select a company to handle the construction works within a month,” informed Pandey.

According to him, NA will further study the technical proposals and after that they will ask the six shortlisted companies to submit their financial proposals and then only select the best firm.

The Nepali Army has been assigned the full responsibility to construct the Fast Track project — a national pride project — which it has segregated into three segments.

Out of the 76.2-kilometre-long expressway, it plans to construct 17 km on its own, hire dependable Nepali contractors for 37 km of the stretch and sign up foreign contractors for the remaining 22.2 km of tunnel and bridge sections.