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P. Manoj

QUALITY and accountability are the new buzzwords in highway construction in the country. Jolted by a few instances of deficiencies and alleged malpractices both in construction as well as the preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs), the Government has overhauled the process of pre-qualification and selection of civil contractors for developing highway projects in a bid to prevent fly-by-night entities from bagging highway deals.

Steps have also been taken to minimise deficiencies in and improve the quality of the detailed project report, which has an important bearing on the quality and cost of highway projects.

Wiser from the experience gained in implementing Phase I of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to limit the value of contracts any contractor can have at any point of time while calculating the bid capacity of the bidders.

In joint ventures, all the partners are now required to submit performance guarantees in proportion to their equity holdings in the joint venture consortium. Earlier, the Government had allowed any one of the joint venture partners to give the entire guarantee on behalf of the consortium.

As per the new criteria for pre-qualification and selection of civil contractors, the minor partners in the joint venture consortium must also have the minimum relevant experience required for qualification, a Ministry document has disclosed.

The Ministry has also incorporated specific provisions in the new DPR contracts to ensure greater accountability of DPR consultants.

Accordingly, the DPR consultants will have to submit a bank guarantee (as performance security) made up of 10 per cent of the consultancy contract value till the completion of civil works contract.

Besides, they will have to pay retention money of 5 per cent of the consultancy contract value, which will be returned only after the civil works contract is completed.

The Government will levy a penalty of 5 per cent of the consultancy contract value if the variation of individual quantities or overall costs is more than plus or minus 15 per cent.

In case of major deficiencies in DPRs, the Government will take penal action against the DPR consultants, including debarring them from participating in future DPR tenders.

Further, DPR consultants are now required to coordinate at the field level with the Project Implementation Units (PIUs) and officers of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at every stage of the preparation of DPRs. For this purpose, 20 additional PIUs have been established for Phase II of the NHDP at the DPR stage itself.

The new DPR contracts will provide for continuation of certain key personnel as DPR consultants for three to four months after award of the civil works contract to facilitate technical coordination between DPR consultants, supervision consultants and contractors, and rectify deficiencies.

The Ministry has also circulated detailed guidelines for preparation of DPRs to ensure that all aspects of proper design, local requirements and consistency of approach are taken care of.

The Government will also engage proof consultants to review each DPR and ensure that it has been prepared in accordance with the highway project requirements and detailed guidelines issued by the Ministry.

The selection criteria for supervision consultants for NHAI-funded projects have also been revised.

While prescribing pre-qualification criteria for consultants and essential qualifications, the Ministry has also prescribed safeguards in the system of sanction of mobilisation and machinery advances.

For personnel to be deployed, the work will be awarded to the lowest bidder from among the technically qualified selected consultants.

The Ministry will also insist upon documentary proof of age and qualifications of key personnel in this regard.

The Government has so far been following the World Bank and ADB norms for awarding the supervision works, according to which preponderant weightage was given to technical qualifications.

Henceforth, the mobilisation advance would be released only in a phased manner linked to the progress of the project.

In addition, the Government has issued guidelines to strictly scrutinise the utilisation of advances by the contractor at the time of release of payments against interim payment certificates.

The Ministry has appointed Engineers India Ltd (EIL) to undertake quality audit of projects under NHDP, and the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) to evaluate the quality of concrete highways being built on certain sections of the NHDP.

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