Surface transport minister, Rajnath Singh has accepted the recommendations of the committee set up to simplify bid evaluation procedure.

The implementation of the recommendations will streamline the bidding procedure, according to a government statement issued here on Wednesday.

The new procedure, to be implemented with immediate effect, will be followed by all national highways works implemented by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The state public works departments will also be requested to follow suit.Singh said the speeding up of the process and introduction of greater transparency would give impetus to the Prime Minister's north-south-east-west national corridor project.

Bid for projects will now be split into two - technical and financial - both of which would be submitted by bidders simultaneously in separate sealed covers. The technical bid envelope containing the bid security and other necessary information will be opened first. The bid will be examined and evaluated further only if the security is appropriate. If it is not, the entire bid, both technical and financial, will be returned to the bidder unopened.

The bidders will be given an opportunity to correct the rectifiable defects during the examination of the bids after which a final bid of responsive bidders will be drawn up.