The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways recently modified the procedure for inviting tenders and qualifying contractors in execution of road and bridge works on national highways and under centrally financed schemes. The modifications have been carried out with a view to improve the performance of projects.
The guidelines with regard to procedures for invitation of tenders and qualification of contractors were framed by MoRTH in November 2009 and amended in March 2010 and May 2010.
Under the modified procedures, state public works departments and Border Roads Organisation will invite bids/request for qualification for works costing up to Rs. 100 crore adopting the necessary bidding document and applicable procedures. In case of works costing more than Rs. 100 crore, the bids/RfQ will be invited in the MoRTH by the concerned superintending engineer of the project zone or the regional officer of the ministry or the project director of the ministry’s project implementation unit in the state.
The modified procedures require that the opening and evaluation of bids/RfQ for projects costing more than Rs. 5 crore and up to Rs. 25 crore be done by a committee headed by the chief engineer (national highways) of the concerned state PWD or equivalent with regional officer of the ministry for the concerned state, superintending engineer of state PWD for the concerned NH circle and executive engineer of state PWD for the concerned NH circle as members.
In case of projects costing between Rs. 25 crore and Rs. 100 crore, the opening and evaluation of bids/RfQ will be done by a similar committee as for projects costing between Rs. 5 crore and Rs. 25 crore. However, following the evaluation, the bids will be screened by a committee headed by the chief engineer in the ministry for the concerned state with chief engineer (national highways) in the state, regional officer of the ministry for the state, representative of the finance division of the ministry and superintending engineer of the ministry for the state as members.
For projects costing more than Rs. 100 crore, the screening and evaluation of bids/RfQ will be done by a committee headed by the chief engineer in the ministry for the concerned state with the chief engineer (national highways) in the state, representative of the finance division of the ministry, regional officer/project director – PIU of the ministry for the state and superintending engineer of the ministry for the state as members.
The modified procedures clearly state that technical and financial bids for national highway and centrally sponsored projects costing above Rs. 25 crore need to be screened and evaluated by the concerned committee in the ministry following which the chief engineer of the project zone will obtain approval of the competent authority and issue Letter of Acceptance to the lowest responsive bidder. The chief engineer (national highways) of the state PWD/project director – PIU has to enter into contract agreement with the lowest responsive bidder within 10 days in conformity with the EPC bidding document.
