The EPB published advertisements in eight national dailies in August inviting proposals from interested companies to build the fair complex on built, operate and transfer (BOT) basis at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

"But no company has submitted any bid during the period," a high official of EPB told The Daily Star. He said the EPB has already sent a letter to the Ministry of Commerce seeking two-month extension of the submission date.

Businesspeople have long been demanding a permanent trade fair complex as they have to spend a lot of money for building make-shift stalls and pavilions at the Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) venue every year.

Officials of EPB could not explain the reasons behind the lack of response to the international tender but sources concerned identified lack of publicity throughout the world and shortage of time as two major reasons.

EPB put the tender details on its website and prepared a compact disc (CD) containing all relevant information about the project and the tender. The CDs have been sent to 15 Bangladeshi trade missions abroad for publicity.

However, a high official of EPB said four-month time is not sufficient for companies to take all necessary preparations before submitting tenders for such a big project involving several hundred crores of taka.

In the tender notice, EPB invited interested companies to submit conceptual and architectural design and management process of the complex to be built on 39.45 acres of land jointly owned by Air Force and Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh.

Besides, some 11 cases are now pending on 18 acres of disputed land, sources said.

The huge fair complex will have shopping mall, restaurant, car parking area and computer centre for the convenience of the fair organisers, exhibitors as well as the visitors, EPB sources said.

The EPB is now taking last minute preparations to hold the DITF 2004 scheduled to begin on January 1 at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.