The Court also extended by 30 days tenure of the contract awarded in July 1998 to JOMAC, a multinational consortium doing the work.

The 5-year contract expired yesterday.

The Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Authority (JMBA) has earned Tk 450 Crore in last five years from the first Operation and Maintenance contract.

The orders came upon a writ pending before the court, filed by JOMAC on July 16, challenging the "transparency" of the tender floated by the JMBA in January this year.

Earlier, the division bench comprising Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury and Justice AFM Ali Asgar had issued a rule asking the government to explain within four weeks why the tender on toll collection, operation, management and maintenance of Jamuna

Bridge should not be declared unlawful.

It had also issued rule upon the government to show cause why a direction should not be given to call for a fresh tender to award the contract.

Appearing for the petitioner, Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud, submitted that the tender documents suffered from a glaring omission that the authority did not state the insurance value of the assets to be insured.

This represents bad and undesirable practice on the part of the JMBA by leaving the insurance value of the assets to be determined on the basis of the subjective valuation of each bidder, Rokan contended.

He further submitted that the entire integrity of the bid process insofar as the financial offer was concerned was compromised and lacked transparency creating an opportunity for corruption.

The court in its order said it is imperative to have a transparent contract for Jamuna Bridge, which is a valuable asset and a key point installation of strategic significance.

Rokanuddin Mahmud with Barrister Mostafizur Rahman appeared for the petitioner. Additional Attorney General A J Mohammad Ali stood for the state.