The Deadline for submissions has been extended until 20 August 2015.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the "EBRD" or the "Bank") is considering a transaction consisting of a loan co-financed with a grant to the Khatlon Province ("Khatlon") to develop a public transport service connecting the City of Kurgan-Tyube (the "City") to the international airport (9km) and to the nearby Sarband city (13km) (the "Project").
The Project is expected to include:
a) Introduction of mid-size and/or large buses or trolleybuses;
b) Creation of a depot and procurement of depot equipment;
c) Transport infrastructure (charging stations, overhead lines if required);
d) Competitive leasing of assets once certain operating, legal and financing key performance indicators (KPIs) are met;
e) Introduction of an integrated ticketing system; and
f) Corporate Development to build operational and financial capacity of the Company;
The Project will introduce a route strategy to service Kurgan-Tyube and Sarband efficiently. Buses will be used on the main routes where traffic and passenger flow warrant such use. Private operators are expected to operate inter-regional routes and feeder routes.
The Bank now intends to engage a consultant (the “Consultant”) to conduct a legal, institutional, technical, financial, environmental and social due diligence of the Project (the "assignment").
More specifically, the Consultant will carry out the following main tasks, as outlined below:
- Task 1. Analysis of the current situation
- Task 2. Definition of route network
- Task 3. Technical parameters for buses
- Task 4. Depot facilities
- Task 5. Fare revenue collection system design
- Task 6. Financial model and EIRR
- Task 7. Environmental and social analysis
Assignment Duration: The assignment is expected to start in the third quarter of 2015 and last for up to 20 weeks.
Maximum Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 280,000; exclusive of VAT.
The consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the Bank's special status as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purhcased in connection with the provision of services (eg VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.
Funding Source: Czech Republic ODA TC fund
Eligibility: Consultancy firms shall be registered in the Czech Republic and the individual experts proposed must be citizens or permanent residents of the Czech Republic. However, up to a maximum of 35% of the maximum contract amount may be used to finance services of local experts who are nationals of Tajikistan or consultancy firms of Tajikistan.
Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or group of firms with extensive experience of working on similar due diligence assignments, in Tajikistan or similar environment, and in particular in the transport sector. Specifically, the Consultant should have experience and expertise in the following:
- developing feasibility studies for international financial institutions or similar and familiarity with IFI procedures and rules on public procuremen5t and disbursement policies
- designing depot facilities, route selection and a fare and revenue collection system.
The Consultant's expert team is expected to include key experts as follows:
- Transport planner, bus operations
- Transport economist and finance expert
- Public service contract and transport authority expert
- Bus technical expert
- Architect
- Local lawyer
- Environmental expert
- Social expert (familiarity and expertise with addressing and promoting gender equality issues preferred)
It is considered important that the Consultant should be partnering or collaborating with local experts/consultants for all aspects of this assignment.
The team should include a resident team leader, who will spend sufficient time on site and experts who can communicate in Russian.
Submission Requirements: Interested firms or groups of firms are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest. The information to be submitted should include the following:
1. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max. 2-4 pages).
2. Details of previous project experience or similar assignments particularly undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contract value, contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided (if different from duration) , main activities, objectives.
3. CVs of key experts who could carry out the Assignment detailing qualifications, experience in similar assignments, particularly assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, main activities, objectives.
4. Completed Consultant Declaration Form and Contact Sheet, the template for which is available from the following web-link:
http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc.
The above information should not exceed 25 pages excluding CVs and contact sheet.
The complete expression of interest (including CVs, Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet) should be submitted, in English electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date. The expression of interest shall ideally be in one file (pdf) of no more than 4MB.
Bank Contact Person:
Angela Levitsky
Technical Co-operation
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Tel: + 44 20 7338 6363
E-mail: levitska@ebrd.com
Notes:
1. The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification only. Consultants will not be asked to submit a proposal. The highest-ranked Consultant will be selected from a shortlist and be invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.
2. The shortlist criteria are:
(a) Firm demonstrates previous transport sector project experience in developing feasibility studies for IFIs or equivalent and familiarity with IFIs procedures and rules on public procurement and disbursement policies (20%)
(b) Firm demonstrates previous project experience in the financial and economic analysis in the transport sector in Tajikistan or other CIS country (20%)
(c) CVs of the experts proposed (60%)
