Lower bid price for roads worries govt

NEW DELHI: The recent trend of highway contractors quoting 20-25% less than the bid price in many projects has become a new concern for government agencies and there is a fear whether players quoting such low price would complete works. The issue even came up at the parliamentary standing committee meeting last week where the members asked the highway ministry and NHAI to find if anything is going wrong.

Sources said some of the MPs in the panel had flagged whether the government estimates for projects were inflated or fly-by-night players were flooding the bidding process. Officials said in some cases more than two dozen players are bidding for each project and that’s unusual.