The Hindu : Business : Contracting procedures must change: Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 26, 2005

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Contracting procedures must change: Minister

Special Correspondent

Calls for a debate on the issue

KOCHI: Public Works Minister M.K. Muneer has said that building contracting procedures for Government works need an overhaul and called for a serious debate on the issue.

Speaking at the Builder's Day celebration organised by the Builders Association of India here on Sunday, he pointed out that the contracting system, designed by the British rulers, was archaic and that it was impeding new developments in the field of construction. He said if the present system survived, it would badly affect construction particularly in the Government sector. His department was planning a workshop on the issue in December.

Referring to the award of Government contracts to the lowest bidder, he said this needed to be changed and the stress should be on quality. He noted that the builders and engineers in the State still followed antique designs of bridges, while bridges in other countries were slick and sophisticated.

He said the Expressway project was the need of the time and that the people of Kerala would realise this `today or tomorrow.' The Minister noted that Kerala's roads were narrow, that there were 28 types of vehicles in the State and that the density of population was high.

Nearly 3,000 people died on the road every year and many times that number got injured. These factors necessitated a wide road like the Expressway. He hoped one day the people would realise this.

All along his Ministership, he had tried to implement the project, but critics had accused him of vertically splitting the State (the proposed road runs from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram) and blocking the `free passage of cows' from one side to the other.

The national president of the Builders Association of India B.N. Dixit said though there were 32 million construction workers in the country, their productivity was very low - just 8 per cent of the American and one-sixth of the Japanese. This was because of the lack of training for the construction manpower. He called upon the State Government to provide a piece of land in Kochi so that the BAI could build a training facility.

He called for a change in the Government contracting procedures and the formula for cost escalation incorporated in the building contracts of public works.

He wanted people to ponder why the multi-billion-rupee projects of big companies were completed on time and within the estimated cost by the contract.

Praphulla Kumar, chairman of the BAI and Cheriyan Varkey, State chairman, spoke.

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