The Hindu Business Line : Financial bidding for 60 highway projects may move fast

New Delhi, Nov. 4 The financial bidding process for 60-odd highway projects – for widening about 6,458 km of highways at an estimated cost of about Rs 60,000 crore – is likely to move ahead fast now.

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed the writ petition of road developers seeking deletion of the ‘competition-limiting’ clause in the bidding process, it is learnt. The clause (which was being contested) stated that only the top five or six technically qualified applicants can be invited for participation in the financial bid stage for public-private partnership projects (PPP) projects.

In September – while the Court case was on – the Finance Ministry decided to delete the clause with prospective effect. However, the highways road developers lobby (National Highways Builders Federation or NHBF) – which had challenged this clause in Delhi High Court since early January – continued its legal battle seeking deletion of the clause with retrospective effect.

Now the Road Ministry is keen to award these projects without any further delay. “We expect to complete the financial bidding process for 60 projects (which include some projects being implemented by the Ministry of Roads) by December 2008. If all goes well, we should be able to award the projects to successful bidders soon,” Mr Brahm Dutt, Secretary, Department of Road Transport, told Business Line.

This includes four-laning of 4,450 km of highways, six-laning of 1,410 km of highways and 598 km of four- and six-laning projects.

As for the future course of action of road developers, the NHBF Director-General, Mr M. Murali, said, “Our stand on the issue has already been vindicated by the Government’s decision to delete the clause. As for seeking a retrospective deletion of the clause, we will take a call on the future course of action after studying the order and discussing the issue with our members.”

Meanwhile, the liquidity crunch appears to have started taking its toll on the highway projects, with NHAI not receiving any response from bidders for projects that were otherwise considered attractive, said sources in the know. The last date for receiving financial bids for NHAI’s projects are slotted from mid-November to December 31.

The contentious clause — stating that only the top five or six technically qualified applicants can be invited for participation in the financial bid stage for PPP projects — was a part of the model request for qualification (RFQ) document, issued by Finance Ministry and prepared by Planning Commission.