Advance Action on Procurement, Recruitment of Consultants and Retroactive Financing

Country/Borrower: People's Republic of China

Title of Proposed Project: Central Sichuan Roads Development

Name and Address of Executing Agency

Sichuan Provincial Communications Department
Mr. Li You
Deputy Director
No. 180 Wuhouci Street, Chengdu
Sichuan, PRC 610041
Fax No. (86-28) 8554-6896
E-mail address: zhoutaozoe@yahoo.com.cn
Brief Description of Project:
The principal objective of the Project is to develop an integrated transport system to support sustainable economic development in Sichuan province. Local roads will complement the expressway in bringing benefits to rural residents. The Project will
  1. reduce traffic accidents and vehicle operating costs;
  2. improve access between Chengdu and Kunming, two major growth centers in southwestern PRC;
  3. provide additional transport capacity to accommodate growing traffic;
  4. provide improved access to employment, markets, and social services, and
  5. develop capacity of local communications bureaus.
The Project integrates the expressway and local roads in its design to effectively bring benefits to townships and villages. The Project has the following components:
  1. construction of a 244 km, four-lane access-controlled toll expressway from Ya'an to Lugu, including access roads, interchanges with toll stations, tunnels, bridges, administrative stations, and service areas;
  2. upgrading of 678 km of local roads to improve access to poor remote areas, and roadside stations;
  3. construction of four public transport centers;
  4. procurement of equipment for road maintenance, toll collection, surveillance and communications, tunnel operation facilities, vehicle weigh stations, road safety, and office administration;
  5. land acquisition and resettlement;
  6. consulting services for construction supervision, road safety audit, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building; and
  7. developing capacity of local communications bureaus for maintenance.

Brief Description of Works, Goods and Consultant Services to be Procured:
Advance action has been approved for the procurement of civil works for the Project. All procurement to be financed under ADB loan will be carried out in accordance with ADB's Guidelines for Procurement. Civil works contracts for the expressway will be awarded on the basis of international competitive bidding (ICB) procedure and those for the local roads will be awarded on the basis of local competitive bidding (LCB) procedure.

A total of about 66 person-months of consultants from an international consulting company will be required for consulting services. International consultants will be financed under the loan, and recruited in accordance with ADB's Guidelines on the Use of Consultants. In addition, the Project will require 5,520 person-months of domestic consultants.

Domestic consultants will be financed by the Sichuan Provincial Communications Department and will be recruited in accordance with government procedures.

Date of Advance Action Approval: 11 March 2005