NHAI project bidders must be ‘BBB’ or higher rated cos

NEW DELHI: Infrastructure construction firms only with ‘BBB’ or higher credit rating will be eligible to bid for National Highway (NH) projects built in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. If any bidder doesn’t meet the credit rating benchmark, it will have to submit a “letter of comfort” from its bankers or financial institution, while bidding for the project.

This is for the first time the highway ministry has set such a parameter for private construction entities. The move comes amid reports of contractors bagging projects under Build Operate and Transfer (BOT-Toll) and Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) facing difficulty in arranging funds to start work, which delays the project implementation.