The Delhi High Court on Tuesday will decide the future of 60 highways development projects worth Rs 65,000 crore, along with the Rs 1,500 crore Hyderabad-Vijaywada project. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) invited bids for these projects last month.
The bidding for these projects is being done in accordance with the Model Concession Agreement, which was endorsed by the Prime Ministers? committee on infrastructure in December last year. As per the agreement, the bidding is done in two phases. In the first round, the companies are are allotted scores on the basis of experience and technical expertise. In the second round, the qualified bidders, capped at five participate in the financial bidding.
It was the clause capping the number of participants for financial bidding, which was challenged by the National Highways Builders? Federation (NHBF) in January this year. ?This clause is unfair to the smaller companies, which might be competent to implement the projects,? said an NHBF official.
In order to expedite the bidding process, which had almost been stalled for over an year, NHAI last month invited bids for the 60 projects spanning various phases of National Highways Development Programme. Meanwhile, the finance ministry scrapped the clause capping the number of bidders for financial bidding at five from all the future highways projects. However, the bidding for the sixty projects were to be carried on with caps in force. This too has been subsequently challenged in the court.
Another matter of contention was another clause added in August this year in the request for proposal (financial bidding) for the projects. The ministry of road transport and highways incorporated an additional condition that a company could not participate in the bidding for a particular project if the company, standalone or as a part of a consortium, during a period of two months preceding the bid due date, has been qualified in financial bidding for eight projects. A company cannot bid for a project even if it has been awarded four projects. However, this also applies only to the 53 projects and all the future projects are exempt from the regulation.
?In case, the Court decides the case against the government the tendering process is not likely to be affected. It will duly proceed sans the two clauses. It is upto the government whether it wants to scrap the tendering process and initiate a fresh one in the eventuality of the its losing the case,? said Manoj Kumar, senior partner, Hammurabi & Solomon.
The Court will also decide the Rs 1,500 Hyderabad-Vijaywada project, which has seen a lot of controversies relating to shortlisting of bidders. The first list of shorlisted bidders, prepared by NHAI in June this year for the project had to be revised on the directions of a two member committee of the ministry of road transport and highways. NHAI, after the completion of review process dropped Madhucon and GMR from the list. It is after this that Reliance Infrastructure, which did not figure in any of the lists filed a petition in the Delhi High Court.