NEW DELHI: In a significant stride towards transparency, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is set to introduce a ‘faceless’ mechanism for the tender process. The government also aims to make streamlining and tracking the bidding process easier. According to officials, there will be no interface until the awarding of the contract is finalised.
Following instructions from Anurag Jain, secretary, MoRTH, the ministry officials have started working on the proposal that envisages making the tender process faceless and transparent. In the faceless tendering mechanism, various activities — starting from preparation of draft notice inviting tender, technical and administrative approval of estimates, preparation of bid documents, and financial and technical evaluation to work allotment — will be done online.
It is learnt that the Prime Minister’s Office is also in agreement on the need for reform. “Idea was suggested to us. I discussed the issue with my officials and told them to work out the details. All the changes, which are proposed, will take some time. It is a time-consuming process; it may take six to eight months, which is quite normal in such a case. We are committed to developing this mechanism and bringing transparency by introducing technology-driven administrative systems,” Jain told TNIE.
The road wing of the ministry deals with the planning, development and maintenance of the national highway network across the country. If all things fall into place, the ministry will be able to implement the plan by March. The officials added that after developing a robust mechanism, approvals would be needed and that process takes some time.
“Besides other things, financial evaluation can easily be made faceless, but technical evaluation and verification require attention. We are holding discussions over the verification process. We want to finish financial and technical evaluation verification in one go for which we need to enrich our database,” said officials.