Nath says draft easy bid norms for mega highways

Road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath has asked his ministry to draft bidding documents for mega projects in such a manner that they did not exclude top domestic players from the bidding process. The direction follows objections raised by some major domestic infrastructure players over the ministry’s plan to tighten bidding norms for mega projects. The tougher RFQ (request for qualification) norms earlier planned would have allowed only bidders with considerable experience,expertise and financial muscle to undertake projects entailing investment of about Rs 5,000 crore.

According to ministry officials,the government was originally working on a set of parameters that would allow only large international players to bid for projects. “The other way out for this would have been that Indian players form a consortium with a major international road developer to get a higher score. However,we have now decided to take a more accommodative view so that the bidding process allows large Indian developers to participate by themselves,as single entities,” road transport and highways secretary Brahm Dutt said on Tuesday.

The road ministry had earlier sought relaxation of the model RFQ prepared by the Planning Commission for the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP). This ensured that only top players qualify,leaving out the bulk of developers that have been in the road construction business in India for years.

“We have as many as 60 players qualifying for a single project under BOT and more than 50 for EPC contracts ever since the RFQ parameters were relaxed by doing away with the top six criteria. To avoid this and to include top Indian players such as GMR,GVK and L&T we are looking at an RFQ that is a mean between the two,” Dutt said.