New players bags govt-funded national highway projects

The roll-out of a large number of National Highway (NH) projects, fully funded by the government in the last six to seven years, has resulted in the emergence of several new players in this space while the traditionally known players have taken a backseat.

None of them are in this space, while the traditionally known players have taken a backseat. None of the earlier construction majors found cited in the top 10 players that are bagging high-value NH projects, being bid out on government funding or engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode, reveals a list of provisionally qualified firms put out by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The NHAI has come out with a highway builders list who have been provisionally pre-qualified for NH projects being executed under three different modes – EPC, Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT-toll), and Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM). The pre-qualification of highway builders has been accomplished based on the bidding documents submitted by these firms between October 2021 and March this year. This pre-qualification is connected to the estimated project cost for the government.

In the list of the 68 firms, which has been uploaded on the NHAI website as provisionally qualified for EPC contracts, construction major Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) comes at 11 and Ashoka Buildcon at 17. Companies such as Apco Infratech, Gawar, Dilip Buildcon, GR Infra, and Iron Triangle have pre-qualified for projects costing up to Rs 1,580 crore. Organisations like NCC and Reliance Infra have pre-qualified for projects costing Rs 1,187 crore.

Normally, bidders submit bids for civil works in various projects. The technical and financial capacity of the same bidder is evaluated in each case by technical divisions, which takes more time.

The NHAI said provisionally qualified bidders' lists have been prepared to avoid repetitive analysis.

For highway developers, EPC projects are preferred works as they don't bear any risk and get the payment for the works accomplished.

Now, the small players have become major firms as they have the manpower and machinery to carry out assignments within the given period.

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Also read: Govt targets 18,000 km highway construction in FY23

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