The road transport and highway ministry has asked states to award works for central road projects through e-tendering, widening application of the model recently adopted by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to check corruption. The ministry also proposes to recommend the model for all road projects, including state highways, at a later stage.
Central road projects are implemented by NHAI, Border Roads Organisation and public works departments of states. NHAI, which is the nodal body for implementation of the government?s flagship National Highways Development Programme (NHDP), started bidding out national highway projects online from July this year. The ministry wants states to emulate this model to carry out small works on national highways. To start with, it has written to states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh where key central projects are proposed.
?NHAI has got a good response to e-tendering so far. We want to start the same model in states that are already working with us on some projects,? road transport and highway minister CP Joshi told FE. ?As we go ahead, we would also like states to e-tender all road projects, whether central or local,? he added.
The ministry wants an efficient and transparent bidding system to prevent corruption and at the same time avoid possible litigation due to rejection of bids. Transparency is desired as the number and size of projects is increasing every year so that the much-delayed road construction target of 20 km a day is achieved at the earliest. In 2011-12, the ministry targets to award 7,900 km of national highway projects against 5,083 km in the previous year..
Early this month, NHAI also removed a key bottleneck in realising the potential of e-tendering model. It has decided to accept technical bids online, a major change from earlier practice of e-tendering from financial bidding stage. ?All tenders in NHAI, including BOT projects from RFQ stage (financial bidding stage), will only be invited through e-tendering,? the agency said in a circular dated October 10.
?The development is an encouraging step towards higher transparency in bidding. It would reduce possibility of corruption and any rejection of application on flimsy grounds like improper binding. It would also reduce costs and manpower requirement as everything would be online and no personal submission of papers would be necessary,? National Highway Builders Federation director general M Murali said.
Reliance Infrastructure?s head (road business) Sudhir Hoshing said, ?It is a good start in making the system efficient. However, it is not possible to know the names of other bidders in e-tendering. More competitive bids can be submitted if we know which companies are bidding for a particular project. A minor change could lead to better decision making at companies? level?. Currently, names of competitors and their final bids are available only after the bids are opened by NHAI.
?E-tendering has become a platform for negotiation by NHAI. Ideally once a bid is submitted, it should either be accepted or rejected. But here, NHAI asks for revision in bids,? a senior official in one of the leading infrastructure development firm said.