Speedy initiatives for construction processes
Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has launched Bidder Information Management System (BIMS) and Bhoomi Rashi and PFMS linkage, the two IT initiatives are aimed at expediting pre-construction processes relating to bidding and land acquisition, respectively.
He has also announced Annual Awards for Excellence in National Highways Projects from this year onwards.
BIMS is aimed at streamlining the process of pre-qualification of bidders for Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) Mode of contracts for National Highway works with enhanced transparency and objectivity.
The portal will work as a data base of information about bidders, covering basic details, civil works experience, cash accruals and network, annual turnover etc.
The pre-qualification of bidders can be assessed from data already stored in the portal, so that technical evaluation can be carried out much faster.
BIMS will be used by all the project implementation agencies of the Ministry for maintenance of technical information of civil works of contractors/concessionaires, and for online technical evaluation of civil works bids.
The bidders would be responsible for ensuring that their latest details are available on the BIMS portal.
These details will be used by bidders to apply for any Request for Proposal (RFP) for civil works on EPC mode that has been floated by the Ministry and its implementation agencies on the Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP).
The BIMS portal will be operated in conjunction with the CPPP portal for invitation of bids for civil works for EPC mode.
It is estimated that BIMS portal will significantly reduce the procurement time for projects through an objective and transparent online evaluation system thereby leading to accelerated project implementation.
Bhoomi Rashi, the portal developed by MoRTH and National Information Centre (NIC), comprises the entire revenue data of the country, right down to 6.4 lakh villages.
The entire process flow in online from submission of draft notification by the State Government to its approval by the Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways and publication in e-Gazette.
The portal, created for expediting the process of publication of notifications for Letter of Award (LA), is now being fully utilized for issuing the notifications, and more than 900 notifications have been issued using the portal so far.
Bhoomi Rashi portal has been instrumental in reducing the time taken for approval and publication of notifications pertaining to land acquisition.
Integration of Public Financial Management System (PFMS) with Bhoomi Rashi is one of the key functionalities to facilitate payment related to compensation for land acquisition to all the beneficiaries directly through the Bhoomi Rashi system.
PFMS is a web-based online software application developed and implemented by the Office of Controller General of Accounts (CGA) to facilitate sound public financial management system for the Government.
It provides various stakeholders with a real time, reliable and meaningful management information system and an effective decision support system, as part of the Digital India initiative of the Government.
With integration of Bhoomi Rashi with PFMS, payment of Compensation by the Ministry to the beneficiaries will be just-in-time and without any parking of funds.
The testing of this integration was done through a pilot project in the Ministry’s Jaipur Regional Office and the system is being now rolled out to all other regional offices including the National Highway Authority of India and its related units.
Speaking at an event in New Delhi on 6 Aug 2018, Gadkari expressed confidence that the above initiatives of the Ministry will help expedite the work of award and construction of highways projects significantly.
He said that thanks to the Bhumi Rashi portal 900 notifications for land acquisition have been issued so far in the current year, as against the 1,000 issued during the whole of last year.
He said that the focus of his Ministry is to reduce construction costs while enhancing quality, and, for this many, initiatives have been taken towards transformation and optimization of pre-construction, construction and maintenance processes.
Gadkari also announced the institution of Annual Awards for Excellence in National Highways Projects from this year onwards, for recognizing concessionaires and contractors who are performing exceptionally. fiinews.com
