The two-member committee of the ministry of road transport and highways has asked the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to review the qualification process to select the private partner for four-laning the Hyderabad-Vijayavada section on NH-9.
The committee was set up to review the short-listing of bidders by the NHAI. The project is under the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP), phase-III.
The committee recommended a re-examination of the process in the line of procedures followed for other seven projects under NHDP, phase-III. The committee was set up after the government felt that the technical evaluation process of the bids needed a re-look. In addition, many bidders had pointed out discrepancies in the evaluation process.
Sources said there were differences in the score claimed by the applicants and the evaluated score by NHAI, as there was non-submission of certain documents certified by the statutory auditors. NHAI and road ministry officials were not available for comments.
Also, certificates issued by the chartered accountant did not indicate whether these were from the statutory auditors. Similarly, experience claimed for the period not related to the prescribed five-year period has not been accounted in the evaluation, they said. Request for quotation were received during the same period.
This exercise is being carried out before the declaration of results of the MP-Maharashtra Border Dhule and Pimpalgaon-Gonde segments, for which the shortlist has been finalised. The committee feels that evaluation for qualification under the Hyderabad-Vijaywada project has been carried out in a different way compared with the seven projects, for which the request for quotation was issued. The committee has also recommended for asking from bidders clarification on the qualifications aspects without allowing them to submit additional documents.
Also, in order to avoid further litigations and representations, the committee feels NHAI may consider a one-time relaxation for this particular package and may increase the number of bidders in the shortlist to accommodate those who qualify in the review process.