The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways achieved the highest ever award of 51,073 km of National Highway projects and highest ever construction of 28,531 Km over a four year period from 2014-15 to 2017-18. Construction of National Highways has more than doubled from 12 km /day in 2014-15 to 27 km/day in 2017-18 and the total investments in the sector has increased by 2.5 times compared to 2014-15. This significant leap in the National Highways award and construction was achieved through multiple policy initiatives taken by the Ministry like the Hybrid Annuity Model, Toll Operate Transfer Model (TOT), increased threshold for project appraisal and approval, support for languishing projects, enhanced inter-ministerial coordination etc.
The various policy decisions have been supported by transformation and optimization of processes within the Ministry and NHAI for pre-construction, construction and maintenance stages to improve quality, reduce construction time and cost. The changes include mandating use of technology in preparation of DPRs, delegation of powers, streamlining of land acquisition process, Independent Engineer/ Authority Engineer reforms, performance management system at NHAI, deployment of manpower from headquarters to field, revision of selection and payment criteria for DPR consultants, use of standard spans for structures, time-bound and online approval of GADs etc. These process transformations were implemented through various digital initiatives such as the Project Monitoring and Information System (PMIS) for monitoring project Management/ PMIS provides customized dashboards and all the projects along with toll plazas, traffic survey points have been mapped on a GIS platform. PMIS provides customized dashboards and automatically identifies projects that are delayed to enable better project management.
Under the ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I, a total of 34,800 kms including the balance road works under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) are to be completed by 2021-22. To achieve this ambitious target, Ministry has been continuously working on further improving internal processes through various digital initiatives to reduce cost and time of construction. The Ministry has also began implementation of an ERP system to integrate more than 60 software and tools across MoRTH, NHAI and NHDICL with significant focus on project management and digitization of records. The following initiatives are being announced today which will streamline the procurement and land acquisition process along with recognition of best performers:
Bidder Information Management System (BIMS)
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (M/o RT&H) has developed the Bidder Information Management System (BIMS) to streamline the process of pre-qualification of bidders for EPC Mode of contracts for all National Highway works with enhanced transparency and objectivity. BIMS would work as a data base comprising bidder wise information covering basic details, civil works experience, cash accruals and network, annual turnover etc. so that bidders’ pre-qualification is assessed based on evaluation parameters like threshold capacity and bid capacity from already stored data and technical evaluation can be carried out in a faster manner using this information.
BIMS would 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 shall be used by bidders to apply for any 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.
The success of the initiative to develop this portal on an all India basis is credited Sri. Rajesh Gupta, Deputy Secretary of the Land Acquisition Wing of MoRTH and Sri. Mansoorul Haque, Technical Director, NIC, ably assisted by Sri. Surajit Dutta, the then Under Secretary, Sri Sumit Kumar, Section Officer, Sri Nitish Mittal, Asst. Section Officer, and Sri Basudeo Prasad Khare, Retd. Revenue Officer from UP who is working as a Consultant on Land Acquisition. The first notification on a completely online flow was sent by Sri. Abhijit Jichkar, Project Director Nagpur, NHAI Nagpur.
Bhoomi Rashi and PFMS linkage
- Bhoomi Rashi, the portal developed by MoRTH and NIC, comprises the entire revenue data of the country, right down to 6.4 lakh villages. The entire process flow, from submission of draft notification by the State Government to its approval by the Hon. Minister of State for RT&H and publication in e-Gazette, is online. The portal, created for expediting the process of publication of notifications for LA, is now being fully utilised 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
Currently, all the notifications pertaining to land acquisition viz., 3a, 3A and 3D notifications are being published through the Bhoomi Rashi portal. Additional functionalities to the Bhoomi Rashi portal for improving the efficiency of the land acquisition process across all stakeholders are being done on a continuous basis. 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.
The Public Financial Management System (PFMS) is a web-based online software application developed and implemented by the Office of Controller General of Accounts (CGA). The primary objective of PFMS is to facilitate sound public financial management system for Government of India (GoI) by establishing an efficient fund flow system as well as a payment cum accounting network. PFMS 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 GoI. 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 Jaipur RO of MoRTH for and the system is being now rolled out to all other regional offices of MoRTH and NHIDCL. The integration of Bhoomi Rashi with PFMS will streamline the process of disbursement of compensation and will reduce the complexity of the need to handle multiple systems for the CALA.
The next milestone of integrating Bhoomi Rashi with the Public Fund Management System of the Ministry of finance was made possible due to the guidance of Sri. Subodh Mathur, Joint Controller General of Accounts. He deputed an officer Sri. Shamsher Ali, Asst. Controller General of Accounts, who worked with NIC and the Ministry to achieve this objective. The field officers of the ministry were working hard to make a payment of compensation directly from the central account through PFMS to the beneficiaries and finally, due to the efforts of Sri Subhash Kumar, SDM Rajgarh, Churu, Rajasthan and Sri Ashwini Kumar, Chief Engineer & Regional Officer, Jaipur this was done successfully.
Through team work and close co-ordination between the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, NIC and Ministry of Finance, and effective liaison with the state governments, Team India has been able to develop and operationalise the Bhoomi Rashi portal which has transformed processes and will enable collation of authentic and real time data on all aspects of land acquisition.
Annual Awards for Excellence in National Highways Projects
To incentivize the key stakeholders in the highway construction and maintenance process, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) intends to recognise and award agencies for the best performing road assets and toll plazas across the country. This is part of the larger objective of strengthening and augmenting the road Infrastructure in the country, which is a top priority of the Ministry.
Recognizing Concessionaires and Contractors who are performing exceptionally and delivering finest quality services during construction, operations, tolling and maintenance stages of the highway project, would encourage all companies in the sector to improve the quality.
The Annual Road Awards to be presented every year starting 2018, are designed across five categories to identify the players, who have adhered to construction and operational guidelines, upheld high quality and safety standards, and employed Innovation and sustainable practices in their work. The five categories are as follows:
- Excellence in Construction Management acknowledges efficient use of resources along with finest quality standards and smooth execution of all milestones of the project.
- Excellence in Operation & Maintenance recognises projects with swift and smooth execution of maintenance works, inspections and unparalleled quality in riding experience.
- Best Toll Plaza focuses on automation and efficient management of traffic and services at the plaza.
- Safe Highway acknowledges commendable work done to reduce road casualties and establish preventive safety measures and emergency response services.
- Innovation in Design or Construction Technology focuses on significant achievements in devising or adapting a new construction technology or structural and geometric design.
The best performers would be selected based on multiple rounds of rigorous assessment. Detailed, category-specific and quantifiable evaluation frameworks have been developed for this assessment by Quality Council of India engaged by the Ministry to design the complete process. The companies would nominate themselves through an online portal by uploading the project information and documents specific to the award category. In the first round, the validity and propriety of the submitted data would be verified and evaluated followed by the second round, which involves an on-site inspection of the shortlisted applicants. The finalists would present to an expert jury panel consisting of industry experts and academicians in the final round. The winners would be announced on the Good Governance Day on 25th December, 2018.
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NP/MS/MS
