MULTIMILLION MPAKA IDC OFFICES CONSTRUCTION OPPORTUNITY

MBABANE – Eswatini Railways (ESR) is looking for a civil contractor for the construction of Mpaka Inland Container Depot (ICD) offices.

ESR said the operations at the Mpaka ICD required personnel to be housed in a safe and secure building, to ensure smooth delivery of the ESR organisational goals and realise profit. Therefore, the purpose of this tender was to procure a suitably qualified civil contractor to erect the office building. ESR emphasized that the contractor must be registered with the Construction Industry Council (CIC) Category B3 only, as required by law.

Performance

“The Contractor shall perform all civil works, earthworks, roofing, glazing, wiring, plumbing and painting works required to complete the office building, including construction of all ancillary structures as directed by the Engineer,” mentions ESR tender documents. They said the contractor must have successfully completed at least two construction projects in the last 10 years from date of submission, each with a value of at least E5.5 million. The contractor must have also participated in at least one project of the same nature and complexity (buildings only) implemented during the last 10 years, with a value of at least E2 million. ESR added that the similarity shall be determined based on the physical size, complexity, construction methodology or technology as described in the title of the contract. They said it was imperative that the bidder demonstrate that it has qualified personnel with the recent experience for the key positions that meet the criteria, and that the nominated personnel confirm their availability to the contract for its full duration.

Ability

“The Bidder must demonstrate that it owns or has the ability to hire the Light Delivery Vehicle, Concrete Mixer and confirm its availability for the entire duration of the contract,” added ESR.The ICD is part of the rail link project with an estimated value of E32.3 billion which was listed as part of the country’s economic growth forecast projects. The project entails the construction of a 150km long new railway line from Lothair (South Africa) to Sidvokodvo in Eswatini that will provide a strategic rail link with the ports of Richards Bay and/or Maputo. As well as the development of the Mpaka ICD Greenfield project requires a 22 000m² hardstanding for container staging office buildings, weighbridge and warehousing.

Projects

The estimated cost of the projects was US$1.8 billion total, with the Rail Link costing US$1.2 billion (E21.6 billion) and the ICD costing US$0.6 billion (E10.8 billion) and the mean IRR value as 14.6 per cent at phased approach. This project is a joint inter-railway strategic initiative between the railway companies of the two countries, Transnet and Eswatini Railways. The Eswatini Rail Link (ESRL) is a seamless regional railway network running across three countries, South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique.

Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sibani Mngomezulu said a feasibility study completed for the rail link and resettlement of the 235 projected affected homesteads was required. Mngomezulu said construction of the hardstanding was completed in May of 2022 and the access road paving was yet to be done and that there was a need  of funding for completion of the rest of infrastructure.
The CEO said the funding would be raised on the strength of Take or Pay Offtake Agreements to be signed between the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and each railway entity. He said the two railway entities would be charged a track fee by the SPV for utilising the railway line that has been constructed with the funding raised by the SPV.

Contribution

“Economic activity is expected to accelerate, with mining, agriculture and manufacturing continuing to increase its contribution to the GDP,” he said. The CEO added that approximately 5 000 work opportunities during construction for 36 months and 263 new permanent jobs during operations would be availed by the project. Other benefits include the decongestion of traffic at the border and creating capacity of up to 45mtpa for General Freight export. Mngomezulu added that business opportunities had also availed themselves for construction industry and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to provide outsources services. He also said an improved logistics chain, direct rail access to the RSA economic hub, to promote intra African trade and integration of the region’s freight logistics would not be excluded.

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