Twelve construction giants are competing to win a 3.6-billion birr tender for the construction of three general hospitals in Addis Ababa.

It is to be recalled that the Public Procurement and Property Disposal Service issued an international bid for the construction of the hospitals in different parts of the city.

Accordingly, 12 construction companies, both local and international, have shown interest in the bid.

The tender was issued in three lots inviting contractors to submit proposals for the construction of general hospitals, which will be located at Kolfe, Nifas Silk and Bole sub- cities.

For the construction of the hospital at Bole sub-city, four companies submitted proposals. The companies were Afro Tsion Construction, Flintstone Engineering and two other companies from China – China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and China Geology Corporation Overseas Construction Group (CGCOCG)

The Bole hospital will be built in the CMC area. It will be an eight-story building, and will rest on 31,000 sq. m. of land.

For the hospital slated to be built at Nifas Silk, five companies submitted proposals. They were Yirgalem Construction Plc, TACON Construction, China Railway NO3 Engineering Group, Alemayehu Ketema General Contractors and MATTA ET ASSOCIATES SAL, a Lebanese company.

The one at Nifas Silk will lie on a 25,700 sq. m. of land.

For the third lot for Kolfe district, three companies expressed interest, viz., Satcon Construction, Shapoorji Balaji Middle East LLC and China Wu Yi Ltd.

The hospital for Kolefe will rest on a 32,000 sq. m. of land.

From the total plots of land secured at the afore-mentioned sub-cities, each building will lie on a 20,000 sq. m. of land.

According to a tender opened yesterday, as of last week bidders are required to submit a bid security amounting to half a million birr for each lot.

The first modern government-run hospital was built by Emperor Menelik II in 1906 in Addis Ababa, and had only 30 beds.

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.

In addition, there are 96 health centers across 116 weredas in the city. Moreover, six new health centers are under construction. At the binging of the Third Millennium, the number of health centers in Addis Ababa was just two dozens.

The three additional general hospitals are expected to serve at least half a million people yearly.

At countrywide level, the total number of health posts reached 16,048 in 2013 and 16,251 in 2014. In this respect, health post-population ratio reached 1: 5,416 as of 2014, according to data obtained from the Ministry of Health.

By the same token, the total number of functional health centers increased to 3,335. Accordingly, health center-population ratio has shown a significant improvement and reached 1:26,390 by the end of 2014. In the same year, the number of hospitals rose to 156 from 116 in 2002.

Nationally, hospital-population ration is estimated at 1:586,740.