Experts hail new proposal …..Kunal Purohit
MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) proposed system which suggests giving greater preference to a road contract bidder’s technical bid than his financial bid has received a thumbs up from experts. Many believe this system will be the way to attract big-ticket infrastructure companies into the city. So far, most of the big contractors have shied away from taking up the city’s road projects, despite many attempts to woo them.
In the proposed system, known as the quality-cum-costbased (QCCB) system, the BMC now plans to give more weightage to the bidder’s technical qualification than his financial bid quoted. This would mean that stringent technical conditions would ensure that only reputed firms, with substantial work experience, can qualify.
Retired deputy municipal commissioner Prakash Sanglikar describes the QCCB system as a ‘filtration’ process. “This system ensures that only those companies which match the high technical standards will be able to bag a contract. This is like a filtration process, which will help us separate the bigticket companies from smalltime contractors.”
A senior road consultant, who did not wish to be named, said: “This system has worked wonders for bodies like the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), which has been implementing it for close to 6-7 years now.” He added that NHAI had been plagued by low bids, till a few years back. After having introduced this system, companies are now bidding over the NHAI’S cost estimate, he said.
Hindustan Times is in possession of some tender documents from bodies like the NHAI. In one of the tenders floated, the weightage given to the bidder’s technical bid is 80%, while the weightage to the financial bid is just 20%.
Said the consultant: “You can set tough technical criteria, which would make it difficult for small-time contractors to bid for these contracts. Hence, even if the bidder quotes the lowest amount, it still wouldn’t guarantee him the contract.”
Source: Hindustan Times, Page No.: 2, Dated: May 04, 2012