Afro Tsion Construction has finally signed a 2.06 billion birr worth of contract to build a general hospital in Addis Ababa with Addis Ababa City Health Bureau.
The contract between the two parties was signed last week. Afro Tsion has agreed to complete the construction of the building within three years.
It is part of a project by the city’s administration to construct three general hospitals across three sub-cities.
The hospitals were meant to be located at Kolfe, Nifas Silk and Bole sub-cities. Following the technical evaluation, out of the total number of bidders, only half of them made it to the financial evaluation stage.
Of these, three companies including Afro Tsion gave their respective bidding price for the construction of the hospital at Bole sub-city.
In this regard, Afro Tsion offered the lowest price of 2.064 billion birr followed by Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and China Geology Corporation Overseas Construction Group (CGCOCG), which offered 2.95 billion birr and 4.19 billion birr, respectively.
The Bole hospital which Afro Tsion committed to build will be located around CMC. It will be an eight-story building, resting on a 31,000 sq. m. of land.
The hospital will have 740 beds and a helicopter pad. In addition to these it will be equipped with a parking lot that will accommodate up to 1,000 vehicles at once.
It is to be recalled that the Public Procurement & Property Disposal Service, the bidding agency on behalf of the bureau; awarded the contract to Afro Tsion a couple of months ago.
However, the contract signing was delayed because of clarity issues when it came to price amendments.
“We have asked some adjustments on the contract document regarding contract price fluctuations, Sisay Desta (Eng), CEO of Afro Tsion told The Reporter two weeks ago.
Established with an initial capital of Birr 50,000 in 1998, Afro Tsion is currently a major player in Ethiopia’s construction sector.
Following the agreement on price adjustments, the two parties have finally signed the agreement.
It is to be recalled, hospitals to be built at Nifas Silk and Kolfe sub-cities are still under tendering process. It is expected that these two hospitals will be awarded after four months.
The one at Nifas Silk and Kolfe sub city will lie on a 25,700 sq. m. and 32,000 sq. m., of land, respectively.
The aforementioned hospital in Bole Sub City alone is expected to serve millions of people annually.
Currently, there are seven publicly-owned hospitals in Addis Ababa – the Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Zewditu Hospital, Yekatit 12 Hospital and Medical College, Menelik II Hospital, and Tirunesh Beijing General Hospital, Ras Desta Damtew General Hospital as well as the Black Lion Referral Hospital.
The first modern government-run hospital in Ethiopia was built by Emperor Menelik II in 1906 in Addis Ababa and had only 30 beds.
