ONS Edition 33

Article: Timelines of bidding process sought from PD. (Business Recorder, 30th December 2024)

Article Summary: The Committee has instructed those advertisements for onshore and offshore bidding be circulated by January 15, 2025, and the Petroleum Division is tasked with expediting the evaluation process and adjustments to the offshore fiscal policy. The committee also directed JJCL and SSGCL to seal deals by January 15th. The Auditor General of Pakistan and the Law Division are to hold a Working Group meeting to resolve outstanding issues through an accelerated legal process. The Committee also addressed the operational continuity of the liquid and LPG terminal at Port Qasim beyond the existing Implementation Agreement (IA). Open bidding is generally preferred, but it may not be effective in Build-Operate-Transfer agreements, especially when critical national assets are involved. The ongoing bidding process should continue under the Port Qasim Authority (PQA), with PQA and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs conducting a thorough risk assessment and developing a mitigation strategy. Discussions between PQA and EVTL will begin at SIFC starting from December 30, 2024, regarding an amendment to Article 3.26 of the existing IA. The goal is for EVTL and PQA to reach a consensus on new terms by January 31, 2025. The Petroleum Division is also tasked with exploring the possibility of selling surplus re-gasified LNG (RLNG) to third parties or new customers and developing a viable solution for addressing 2.8 million pending connection requests for RLNG by January 15, 2025.

Article: NHAI invites bids for 161 km of northern RRR. (The Hindu, 29th December 2024)

Article Summary: To constructing a four-lane access-controlled roadway on the northern side of the State Capital in India, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has announced that it is accepting proposals. The bids are distributed into five distinct packages, with the objective of constructing a greenfield highway that is about 161 kilometers in length and is anticipated to cost ₹7,104 crore. The project will be created between the villages of Girmapur and Rayagiri, which are in the districts of Sangareddy and Yadadri Bhongir, respectively. Within the next two years, it is anticipated that the bids will be finished, and the contracting agency will be responsible for the maintenance for a period of another five years. It is estimated that the project will need the purchase of 1,895 hectares, of which 1,862 hectares have already been identified. Since farmers have voiced their concerns with the lower rate of compensation that was established by the previous administration, the government is now investigating several methods to guarantee that individuals who have lost land get acceptable compensation. While Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy expressed his gratitude to Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy for his efforts to expedite the project, he also expressed his appreciation for the notification.

Article: Bidding adieu to suburban businesses that closed in 2024 (Daily Herald, 29th December 2024)

Article Summary: The closure of several companies in the suburbs has left its devoted clientele with lasting recollections of the establishments that they had previously patronized. On January 28, 2023, the pizza and sandwich restaurant Rogue's Corner in Elgin, which had a steampunk motif, closed its doors because of injuries sustained in a vehicle accident that occurred in November 2023. After being purchased by Kohan Retail Investment Group on March 22, the Spring Hill Mall, which was a retail mall that was mainly empty, was permanently shuttered. In October of 2015, Outback Steakhouse, which had been operating at the Randhurst Village site for eight years, decided to shutter its Mount Prospect branch. Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale, New York, shut its doors in April, and the municipality of Bloomingdale, New York, purchased the last section of the mall in a $8.75 million transaction earlier this year. The destruction of International Plaza, a retail mall located on the south side of Arlington Heights that had been abandoned and was in a state of disrepair, started in April. Officials from the village have issued citations and fines to AGOLF LLC, the owner of the plaza for a significant amount of time, for several breaches of the property code. After being in operation for 19 years, Graham's 318 Coffeehouse, which was located in the heart of Geneva, shut operations in April. After seven decades of horse activities, the park administration decided to shut Palatine Stables in the autumn. According to Ferrara Candy, the parent business of Jelly Belly Candy business, which is situated in Chicago, the North Chicago facility of Jelly Belly Candy Company was shut down in October, and 66 employees were thrown off. The month of July saw the closure of all three facilities of Signature Fitness Club, which were in Schaumburg, Naperville, and Toronto. A 35-year saga that was as much about the people behind Riccardo's Ristorante in Schaumburg as it was about the beloved company itself came to an end when the restaurant shuttered in the middle of July. There are currently preparations being made to provide a fresh eating idea to the area. There have been closures at the following restaurants in the state of Illinois: Gigio's Pizzeria in Des Plaines, Apple Villa Famous Pancake House in Hoffman Estates, and Red Lobster in Geneva. Gigio's Pizzeria, a pizza restaurant that was managed by a family, shut down in July when the proprietors decided to retire. A restaurant that has been a part of Hoffman Estates for almost the whole of the 21st century, Apple Villa Famous Pancake House & Restaurant, shut down in the month of August. At the beginning of 2015, the Hoffman Estates Chamber of Commerce and Industry honored the restaurant by bestowing upon it the title of Business of the Year. One of the more than one hundred chain restaurants that were shut down by the financially struggling restaurant firm as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings was the Red Lobster restaurant located in Geneva. Michael Jordan's Steak House, which has been in Oak Brook for seven years, will permanently shut its doors in the month of December. The Heavenly Bodies strip club in Elk Grove Village was razed to the ground as the new owner of the property, Elk Grove Village, prepared the area for redevelopment. To tearing down the long-standing gentlemen's club, as well as a former Burger King restaurant and Marathon petrol station that the town also bought, McDonagh Demolition was granted a contract for $299,300. The prolonged existence of MT Barrels Sports Bar & Entertainment in Schaumburg, which had been a facility that was only open on weekends, came to an end in late October. Even though Susie Sushi in Fox River Grove is shutting down because of persistent landlord conflicts, the proprietor has said that they want to reopen at a different site in the near future. At the end of the year, the Joelle's Hallmark shop in Rolling Meadows will be shutting, and Party City will be liquidating all of its locations, including more than a dozen in the suburbs. The Busch vehicle Service Center, which is in Palatine and specializes in vehicle and tire maintenance, will reach the conclusion of its last chapter at the end of the year. The historic brick structure recalls the days when roadside car repair shops were the norm, and the closures are part of a bigger trend of businesses closing their doors across the state of Illinois.

Article: URA takes steps to encourage bidding (The Standard, 30th December 2024)

Article Summary: To increase the number of bids submitted by developers and to improve openness and communication with them, the Urban Renewal Authority intends to launch development facilitation services the following month. Within the context of the Shantung Street/Thistle Street project, the URA intends to conduct a trial of these services. There were only five transactions that took place in the secondary market among the ten main housing estates, while seven transactions took place in the primary market among the ten blue-chip estates. On the other hand, Blue Coast II in Wong Chuk Hang intends to raise prices by five percent. In addition to celebrating the completion of its Oria project, Hip Shing Hong revealed that it intends to put finished units up for sale, which will make it one of the first projects to be released on the market in the following year.