Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 21, 2021

Aim Texas, in collaboration with JIC – Bangladesh (Sub-consultant), has successfully made it to the shortlist for the consultancy tender aimed at providing Environmental and Social Management services for the Jhenaidah-Jashore Road Section (Phase-1) and Bhomra-Satkhira-Navaron Road Section (Phase-3) of the Western Economic Corridor and Regional Enhancement Program (WeCARE Program) in Bangladesh. Following this achievement, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) of Bangladesh extended an invitation to Aim Texas to submit a comprehensive Full Technical and Financial proposal. The invitation was received on May 21, 2021.

The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh has received financing from the International Development Association (IDA – World Bank) in the form of a credit toward the cost of Phase 1 Western Economic Corridor and Regional Enhancement Program (WeCARE): Jhenaidah- Jashore Highway (N-7) Improvement Project. The Roads and Highways Department, an implementing agency of the Client, intends to apply a portion of the proceeds of this credit to eligible payments under the contract for which this Request for Proposals is issued.

This Request for Proposals (RFP) has been addressed to the following shortlisted Consultants:

SI No (Not According to Rankins)	Name of the Firm/Association of Firm
01.	Adroit Environmental Consultants Ltd. (AECL), Bangladesh (Lead Firm) RINA Consulting., Genova-Italy (JV Firm)
02.	Aim Texas Trading LLC, USA (Lead Firm) Javed International Consultants (JIC), Bangladesh (Sub-Consultant)
03.	Asian Consulting Enterprise Pte. Ltd., Singapore (Lead Firm) Asian Consulting Engineers Pvt. Ltd., India (ACE) (JV Firm)
04.	Ecotone Worldwide Sdn. Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Lead Firm) Institute of Water Modeling (IWM), Bangladesh (JV Firm) Knowledge Management Consultant (KMC) Ltd. Bangladesh (JV Firm)
05.	KS Consultant Limited (KSCL), Bangladesh (Lead Firm) Katahira & Engineers International (KEI), Japan (JV Firm) Development Solutions Consultant Limited (DSCL), Bangladesh (JV Firm) Development Research Initiative (DRI), Bangladesh (JV Firm)
06.	PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd. (PWC), India (Lead Firm) PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Bangladesh (Consortium Firm) Development Organization of the Rural poor (DORP), Bangladesh (Consortium Firm)
07.	Samahar Consultants Ltd, Bangladesh (Lead Firm) Environment and Resource Analysis Centre Ltd. (ENRAC), Bangladesh (JV Firm) TERRACON ECOTECH PRIVATE LIMITED, INDIA (JV Firm)
08.	STUP Consultants Pvt. Ltd India (Lead Firm) BCL Associates Limited (BCL), Bangladesh (JV Firm)

The WeCARE program aims to work on upgradation and improvement of national highways along with utilities for improved digital connectivity, development of complementary infrastructure and services. There will be four phases of the program.  The project is likely to cause adverse environmental & social risks and impacts in terms of loss of mature trees along the RoW; health and safety of workers and communities; acquisition of private lands for the upgradation and expansion of road networks and related utilities, partial or full impacts on structures such as houses, mosques, temples, graves, and madrasas.

Considering these large scale, adverse impacts, the project has been categorized as high risk.

The program is planned to have the following four distinct phases:

• Phase 1: Upgrading the Jashore- Jhenaidah road section as a smart, resilient and safe highway, and local economic infrastructure.

• Phase 2: Road Maintenance Financing; and Strengthening Road Sector Management & Institutional Capacity.

• Phase 3: Upgrading of Bhomra – Satkhira-Navaron road section as a smart, resilient, and safe highway; and local economic infrastructure.

• Phase 4: Upgrading of Local Economic infrastructure.

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Components

The widening of the remaining 150 km of the 260 km of Western Corridor Highway, other than Jashore-Jhenaidah und Bhomra-Navaron segments, will be financed by AIIB in parallel. This will be considered as the “Associated Facilities” of the World Bank financed two sections (Phase I and 3) as per the ESCP agreed between GoB and the World Bank.

The tasks that will be carried out by the E&S Consultant are described under Section 3 of the Terms of Reference (TOR). Four tasks described in TOR are summarized below:

Tasks	Description of Activities
Task 1	Update the Environmental and Social lmpact Assessment (ESIA) and prepare the Environment and Social Management Plan (ESMP) for Jashore-Jhenaidah Section under Phase- 1
Task 2	Update the Resettlement Action PIan (RAP) for Jashore-Jhenaidah Section under Phase 1 and prepare of a Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) for Bhomra – Satkhira – Navaron Section under Phase 3
Task 3	Preparation of the Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) for the WeCARE Program
Task 4	Conduct an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment and Prepare an Environmental and Social Management Plan for Upgrading Bhomra-Satkhira-Navaron Section National Highway) under Phase-3

The project corridor under this assignment is shown in the following Map.

Summary Description of Tasks in TOR

Task 1: This task covers mainy updating of ESIA and preparation of ESMP for Jashore-Jhenaidah Section under Phase 1 of WeCARE program. Existing ESIA has been prepared based on the 2015 design supported by Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the Jashore-Jhenaidah section of the WeCARE corridor under Phase 1 of WeCARE program.

The Consultant, under this Task, will update and finalize the existing ESIA and ESMP for this section (Jashore-Jhenaidah) of the Jashore (N7) National Highway. The updated ESIA will be based on final design and alignments and will reassess (from an Environmental and Social perspective) all changes made into the project design and measure specific impacts as they were unknown during the preparation stage.

The Consultant will keep track of the feasibility studies and existing road design, maintain regular communication and share information with RHD and the technical feasibility, design/DPR consultants to be able to understand specific/final alignments and design features, utilities planned, new road width etc., to be able to scope the scale and area of social and environmental impacts, and equally importantly, to ensure integration of ESIA findings in the engineering design; their specifications including exact location, designs and layouts and their overall spatial spread.

Task 2: This Task mainly covers the Update of a Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) for Jashore-Jhenaidah Section under Phase 1 and prepare of a Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) for Bhomra – Satkhira – Navaron Section under Phase 3 of WeCARE program.

The consultant will use the guidance available under the Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) developed for the RHD components of the WeCARE program. The E&S Consultant will work in close coordination with both the Technical and the ESIA consultant, for scoping the scale, magnitude, and specificity of all land related risks, conduct consultations and develop the RAP.

The E&S Consultant will estimate the total land requirements of both road section and the site-specific land parcels needed to be acquired for the purpose, or restrictions on land use that may cause physical displacement (relocation, loss of residential land or loss of shelter), economic displacement (loss of land, assets, or access to assets, leading to loss of income sources or other means of livelihood), or both. The Consultant will also need to assess the direct impact of acquisition on landowners as well as indirect impacts on income and livelihood on dependents of land adjacent to those acquired for the purpose. This assessment will also need to scope all access and use related restrictions on land and its related resources on which the project affected persons/ families (PAPs/PAFs) may be dependent for their livelihoods and income.

Task 3: This Task covers mainly preparation of the Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) for the WeCARE Program, including all the four phases of the WeCARE program and all the components to be implemented by RHD and LGED under both the World Bank and AIIB support. The TOR stipulates that SESA needs to be prepared alongside the ESIA of Phase 1, so that it is in place well in time to inform the activities under Phase 2 and especially Phase 3.

The SESA will be regional in scope, focusing on the Western districts of Bangladesh, where this program will be implemented. It will involve a strategic assessment of the full range of broad environmental and social characteristics of the Western region that are likely to be impacted because of the investment activities planned under the project and identification of system level response/ plans needed for mitigating or managing those risks. It is the steppingstone to a more site or project-specific E&S risks and impacts assessment and management. It will also inform the upstream decision making with respect to environmental and social sustainability of the WeCARE program.

Task 4: This Task mainly covers the preparation of ESIA and ESMP for Upgrading Bhomra-Satkhira -Navaron Section National Highway under Phase 3 of WeCARE program.

The Phase 3 will upgrade the Bhomra-Satkhira-Navaron section of the National Highway (62km) from a two-lane single carriageway to a climate-resilient four lane dual carriageway. It will include separate service lane for slow moving vehicles and vulnerable users on both sides of the carriageway, installation of Optical Fiber Cable (OFC), and deployment of intelligent Transport System (lTS). For this alignment, site, and intervention specific ESIA will have to be undertaken and a detailed management plan will have to prepare by the E&S Consultant under this Task.

For preparation of the ESIA and ESMP for this road section, the E&S consultant will follow the detailed objectives and scope as mentioned under the Task 1 (section 3.1 of TOR). However, under this task, a new ESIA and ESMP will need to be prepared as there is no preliminary ESIA for this road section.

Status of Asian Highway

The Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network (IGA) was adopted on November 18, 2003, which identifies 55 AH routes among 32 member countries totaling approximately 140,000 km (87,500 miles), Agreements have been signed by 32 countries to allow the highway to cross the continent and also reach to Europe. Some of the countries taking part in the highway project are India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, China, Japan, South Korea and Bangladesh.

The Intergovernmental Agreement entered into force on 4thJuly 2005. Bangladesh has signed the Agreement on July 5, 2009. The Asian Highway network comprises more than 141,000 kilometers of roads, passing through 32 member States.

The Asian Highway (AH) and Bangladesh

Bangladesh has acceded to the Asian Highway Network on November 08, 2009 to connect the country with 28 countries. The total length of Asian Highway Network in Bangladesh is 1761 km excluding the common part of AH1 & AH2 of 283 km. UNESCAP has been working to provide secretarial support for implementation of the Asia Land Transport Infrastructure Development (ALTID) project.

Asian Highway in Bangladesh and WeCARE Corridor