Construction of the BD43 million ($114 million) Isa Town flyover and interchange project in Bahrain could be indefinitely delayed following the termination of the contractor's services, it has emerged.

The project, which got underway in October 2007 after the contract was awarded to South Korea's Sungwon Corporation, was originally scheduled to be completed by July this year.

Completion

However, the Works Ministry announced last Saturday it had terminated Sungwon's contract 'for failure to improve their performance and sort out their financial matters'.

The termination came as only 40 per cent of the total work had been completed on the project.

Works Ministry public works affairs under-secretary Nayef Al Kalali said it was difficult to determine date of completion, but there was 'a possibility of a three-month delay' from the original completion date.

'As the market conditions are favourable at present, it will be an ideal chance for local contractors to take part in such projects,' he said.

Al Kalali said that a fresh tendering process was already underway and a new contractor could be named in three weeks.

However, sources told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) it would take several months for a new contractor to take charge of the site.

'This is a highly-specialised work and involves bridges, roads and underpasses,' said an official of a leading contracting company, who didn't want to be named.

'We were initially not very hopeful of the contract being completed on time and had expressed our reservations to the government.'

Sources also said all those who had lost the bid in 2007 to Sungwon were being invited to re-tender the project.

'Among them are several Bahraini companies and a foreign company that is presently engaged in at least one other project in Bahrain,' said the official.

Meanwhile, Kalali said that the ministry had given more than one chance to the contractor to improve performance and organise the financial and administrative aspects of the project, but they failed to deliver.

'On the ministry side, there are no payments pending for the contractor,' he said.

'The company claimed instability of their financial conditions due to the recent financial crisis, for which they requested that they be given a chance to provide appropriate funding for the project.

'However, they have repeatedly failed to hold up to their promise to improve their performance and pay the sub-contractors and workers their wages.

'For this reason, the ministry felt obliged to terminate the services of the contractor and choose another contractor, through a tender process to complete the remaining 60pc of the project.'

Al Kalali said the ministry had seized the site and taken possession of all equipment at the project site in line with the terms of their contract.

'We have also spoken to the bank to officially withdraw the performance bond from the contractor,' he said.

GDN had reported in August last year that work had been halted because Sungwon had allegedly not been paid by the ministry and, as a result, it was unable to pay the wages of its workers who had gone on strike.

The company then claimed it had been unable to pay over 500 workers involved in the construction since May 2009 because it was owed BD2 million by the ministry.

A ministry spokesman told the GDN that payment certificates related to contractors' jobs already completed had been transferred and processed.

The problem was resolved on the intervention of the Labour Ministry and work restarted.

Since then, it has been halted and restarted several times with not more than a few workers on the site at any given time.

When the contract was awarded, Sungwon vice-president Richard Lee had said the company was using revolutionary construction techniques for the project to ensure there was no disruption to the traffic flow during the period of construction.

The contract was Sungwon's first civil works project in Bahrain and its biggest roads project in the Middle East.

It was also the first time the construction of a major flyover was being carried out using a launching girder, which eliminated the need for elaborate scaffolding that could disrupt traffic.

At peak hours, the Isa Town Gate intersection presently handles more than 6,000 cars per hour.

It is estimated that when finished, it will be sufficient to accommodate the increase in traffic that is anticipated in the coming years.

No top official from the company could be reached for comment yesterday.

A call to the company's offices in Isa Town revealed 'there was no one available to talk'.

An employee who answered the office phone said she had no information.

'We are not sure what is happening. What is in the papers is for all to see. Only our project manager is authorised to speak, but he has not been in Bahrain for the last few weeks,' she said.-TradeArabia News Service