Transport ministry allots scores to companies to hasten project award process

Infrastructure players GMR, Larsen & Toubro, Leighton Contractors and Isolux have bagged top ranks in the ‘pre-scoring system’ that the transport ministry has introduced to expedite the process of awarding road projects to private companies. Scores were given to developers on the basis of their investments in projects across different sectors over past five years. The points will now be used for faster evaluation of their financial capability for different road projects. GMR Infra has the highest score at 16,174, followed by L&T at 11,128. Leighton has scored 10,391 while Isolux is at 7,642. Some of the other high scorers are Hindustan Construction Company, IRB Infra and Lanco Infra. Overall, 49 infrastructure companies have been covered under the system and allotted pre-scores. Other firms will be covered gradually.

“Pre-scoring will expedite the process of evaluating the documents of different companies for awarding projects and make the process more consistent. Now only a small formula applied on the pre-scores will help us determine the eligibility,” a ministry official said. Companies take 45 days to submit eligibility documents for each project they wish to bid for and the government takes as much time to see whether they qualify for bidding or not.

“...But with the new system, the whole process can be conducted in four days,” the official added. The scores would be applicable for projects covering 5,000 km of the total of 20,000 km falling under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase IV. The pre-scores are valid till the end of next year, subject to quarterly updation.