NHAI to tighten eligibility criteria for bidders

The Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance, are putting together pre-qualification conditions for all BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) infrastructure projects — including highway upgradation — to streamline the process.

The NHAI has identified over 17 contracting firms as non-performing contractors on the basis of their review of project implementation. Of these, nine are Indian companies and eight of them are foreign firms. As per policy, the NHAI does not award any future contracts to non-performing contractors.

The Golden Quadrilateral Project — connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai with two-lane highways across 5,846 km — is still awaiting completion in several pockets, owing to failure of contractors. Several contracts had to be terminated and re-awarded leading to project delay. About 249 km along the GQ, spread between 25 contracts, are yet to be completed. As many as seven contracts on GQ have been terminated since 2004 with the Haveri-Harihar and Hraihar-Chitradurga sections on NH 4 project contracts terminated early this year.

Including the North-South and East-West corridor and port connectivity projects, a total of 14 contracts have been terminated between 2004 and 2007 by the NHAI.

Even as GQ drags along, North-South / East-West corridor is also in the slow lane and the NHAI has recently estimated that several contract stretches are likely to miss their scheduled deadlines by months or even years in some cases.

The latest NHAI report shows as many as 24 NSEW projects under National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) Phase II will not meet their scheduled deadlines. What’s more, there is a yawning gap between the scheduled completion date and the actual “anticipated” date of completion.

All 10 NSEW NHDP Phase I projects are already heavily delayed and the expected completion dates have shifted by a couple of years in most cases. A 28-km stretch on NH 31 from Purnea to Gayakota, on which work started in September 2001, has missed the March 2004 deadline and is staring at a March 2008 deadline with just 61 per cent progress against a target of 96 per cent. Similarly, a 16-km Lucknow-Kanpur section on NH 25 has reported just 49 per cent progress even after missing the May 2005 deadline and with an anticipated completion date of December 2007.

North-South & East-West corridors are part of the ambitious NHDP Phase I and II projects — 7,588 km long — to connect Srinagar with Kanyakumari and Porbander with Silchar. The NSEW projects are scheduled for completion in 2009.

The stumbling blocks

Golden Quadrilateral Project

• 249 km spread between 25 contracts yet to be completed

• 7 contracts on GQ terminated since 2004 NSEW NHDP phase I

• A 28-km stretch on NH 31 missed March 2004 deadline. Target 96 pc, completed only 61 pc

• 16-km stretch on NH 25 missed May 2005 deadline. Completion only 49 pc