The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure approved on Friday the model Engineering, Procurement and Construction Agreement document for construction of two-lane national highways.

All the National Highways works which are not done on PPP mode [BOT (Toll) or BOT (Annuity)] would now be done primarily through EPC mode.

“The EPC document has been structured in a manner that time overrun and cost overrun in implementation of National Highways works shall be minimised to a great extent and there will be optimisation of design and quality construction,” an official statement said.

At present the national highways not viable on BOT (Toll)/ Annuity mode are taken up under traditional item-rate contracts. “Experience shows that item rate contracts are generally prone to time and cost overruns. The aforesaid drawbacks of item rate contracts can be addressed by adopting the EPC approach which relies on assigning the responsibility for investigation, design and construction to the contractor for a lumpsum price under a fixed time frame determined through competitive bidding,” it said.

The Empowered Group of Ministers in its meeting held in February 2012 mandated that EPC document after finalisation through inter-Ministerial consultations could be placed before the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure for consideration.

Highway Maintenance

Separately, the Cabinet committee has also approved the operation and maintenance of the national highways on Operation, Maintenance and Transfer (OMT) basis.

“Ex-post facto approval for six OMT Projects on East -West corridor measuring about 963 km which have been awarded after the approval of Standing Finance Committee and the subsequent approval of the Minister of Road Transport and Highways,” a second statement said.

It added that the move will ensure regular maintenance of the upgraded national highway sections at least for period of concession without any liability to the Government.

>roudra.b@thehindu.co.in

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