Potholes discovered in public-private road projects

While the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is aiming for better road infrastructure in India through the public-private partnership (PPP) route, the process for the appointment of private partners has recently developed potholes.

In an attempt to ensure that road projects are developed by the most well qualified industry players, the model request for qualification (RFQ) issued by the Planning Commission of India on 5 December, 2007, introduced a points-based system to select bidders qualifying for the request for proposal (RFP) stage. The RFQ permits the selection of five or six applicants who would pre-qualify on the basis of their aggregate experience scores.

Indian road developers cried foul, alleging that this criterion favoured the more experienced overseas infrastructure companies, was anti-competitive and would result in cartelization.

Saket Shukla and Akshay Jaitly are partners, and Dinesh Pardasani and Mrinal Ojha are senior associates at Trilegal in Delhi. The firm has offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad and has over 80 lawyers, some of whom have experience with law firms in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.