NHAI relaxes shortlisting norms to lure more bidders

The fact that only the top six players could make it to the RFP stage based on their experience scores had discouraged medium-sized players with expertise only in the road sector from bidding for projects. The reason is that the experience score is computed on the basis of the experience a player has in various sectors and not just one. For instance,a player who has done roads,ports and airports is expected to get a higher score than a player who has done only road projects.

In fact,the National Highways Builders Federation (NHBF) had approached the Delhi High Court over the system of shortlisting only the top six players,claiming that it would exclude a large number of players who might have been in road sector for years compared with newer players,which are into a number of areas such as ports,airports and power.

“The relaxation has been made for all projects that are being bid out by the NHAI over the next few months,” a senior government official said. As many as 70 projects are due for receiving bids in the next two months.

In the case of Muzzafarnagar-Haridwar and Bareilly-Sitapur,the NHAI has received as many as ten bids each. This is in contrast to the number of bids that it received for over 64 projects bid out in the third quarter last fiscal. “Only 22 projects received bids,and of these only eight received bids from more than two bidders,” according to official sources.