Beginning November 15th, 2013, the National Highways Authority of India will allow only pre-qualified bidders to submit financial bids or e-quotations for user fee collection at toll plazas under its public funded/annuity projects.

Last month, applications for pre-qualification were invited from contractors for user fee collection at 89 toll plazas under the NHAI.

The pre-qualification process is basically aimed at evaluating the net worth of the contractors and thereafter fixing their eligibility.

As per the Request for Qualification document released for the purpose, a two-stage bidding process would be followed for awarding the work of user fee collection at toll plazas under NHAI. In the first stage, the contractors need to get themselves pre-qualified by applying in advance. The pre-qualification process is open throughout with no last date for applying. Once an application for pre-qualification is received, the NHAI would examine it and declare the result within 14 days. At the end of the pre-qualification process, a list of bidders pre-qualified as category I or category II along with their net worth would be announced. The list of pre-qualified bidders would be updated from time to time. Category I bidders include those interested in bidding for more than two toll plazas. They are required to submit a common bid security of Rs. 1.5 crore and cost of bid documents of Rs. 5 lakh. Category II bidders are those interested in bidding for up to two toll plazas. They have to submit common bid security of Rs. 50 lakh and cost of bid documents of Rs. 1 lakh. Category II bidders may upgrade themselves to Category I by paying the difference in bid security and cost of bid documents.

Toll plaza_ProjectsMonitorThe second stage consists of financial bid/e-quotation. All those appearing in the list of pre-qualified bidders announced and updated by the NHAI with net worth prior to seven days of the due date of submission of financial bid/e-quotation, are eligible to participate in the second stage. At this stage, the technically qualified bidders with net worth more than the net worth mentioned in the financial bid/Request for Proposal or e-quotation of a toll plaza, after duly considering the net worth requirement of toll plazas in hand, excluding those on e-quotation basis, can submit financial bid or e-quotation in electronic form by enclosing the list of pre-qualified bidders. No document is required to be submitted in physical form at the time of submission of financial bid/e-quotation.

The eligibility condition laid down in the RfQ document for participation in the financial bid/RfP or e-quotation stage states that the bidder needs to have a minimum net worth of 20 percent (10 percent in case of e-quotation) of the toll plaza’s Annual Potential Collection at the close of the preceding financial year and positive net cash accruals during any two financial years out of the last three financial years. Where a bidder has already been awarded toll plazas for user fee collection, the net worth requirement would be increased by 10 percent for each toll plaza awarded.

The NHAI has already begun receiving applications for pre-qualification of bidders for user fee collection at its toll plazas. The list of pre-qualified bidders announced/updated would be valid till September 30th, 2014.


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