Malaysian based Road Builder Holdings has become the sole contender to finance and manage the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway.
Work on the US$ 130 mn highway has started with the Treasury allocating Rs.
10 bn to Keangnam Construction Company.
rn
rnNearly 14 parties earlier expressed interest to finance and take over management of the highway, eventually running it as a toll road.
The Bureau of Infrastructure and Investments had narrowed down the list further with a local conglomerate and the Road Builders coming up to the bidding stage.
rn
rnBut the local conglomerate had subsequently pulled out leaving the Malaysian construction firm as the sole runner for the project.rn
rnRoad Builder Holdings now have to submit a proposal by Dec. 13 to the BII, on how they plan to manage the four-lane toll road on a build own and transfer basis.
rn
rnThe Malaysian firms core business activities revolve around ports, property and building toll roads. It has successfully completed projects in Malaysia and India.
r