Government mulling to revive EPC mode of road bidding

11 Aug 2011 Evaluate

In order to cut the layers of intermediaries, road projects may soon be awarded in a true contract model - lock, stock and barrel to the lowest bidders. Initiated by the Planning Commission, the Roads Ministry is working on reviving the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) mode of road bidding, where projects will be awarded outright and official role will be reduced to deciding specifications and quality. The rephrased EPC policy is likely to be announced in 2-3 months time period.

If EPC gets implemented in the way planning commission is suggesting, then it would be cheaper than annuity-backed projects. EPC which was earlier passed on were half-hearted attempts or in item-based construction contracts where government maintained a lot on its plate, including estimates of work to be done by the contractor. On the other hand, the government paid the contractor on the basis of measurement of work, but the system was prone to cost escalation, and bereft of economy incentives.

The government had almost scrapped the model and shifted largely to annuity-based and toll-funded models. However, option to large-scale annuity funding has raised fiscal concerns. These payments could rapidly increase in the coming years and become a big pull on the government budget. The government's liability on account of annuity payments for highway construction had touched a whopping Rs 83,794 crore in 2010-11, which was more than three times the value of the projects awarded under the annuity mode, which involves fixed periodic payments by the government for 17 years.

For the year 2011-12, the government is intending to bid 60 percent of its PPP highway projects in the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) toll model, 35 percent of the projects in the BOT-annuity model and a scanty 5% of the projects in the EPC model. As per the new EPC model, the contractor will accept the risk and responsibility for both the design and the construction of work. The government will only provide a feasibility report. Private companies on the contrary will provide design based on the feasibility report and the government will select bidders on the basis of the design and costs quoted. This move is likely to reduce the number of intermediaries as the companies, which bags the project anyway give them out on true contract to smaller developers.

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