NEW DELHI: In a major policy change, all highway agencies under the road transport ministry, including the NHAI, will soon replace the least cost (L1) mode for bidding out works for preparing detailed project reports (DPRs) with highest technical score (T1) for companies. The agencies will fix cost for consultancy service (bid price) and companies will be selected on the basis of their technical competence and ratings based on their past performance.Officials said the experiment of only fixed cost and highest technical score for bidding out works in the NHAI has been “good” so far, since its introduction in Sept last year. TOI on Sept 8 had first reported this crucial change in bidding parameters. “The new provision of rating of bidders and assigning 30% marks for technical score will further bring quality players to bid for projects,” said a senior official.The policy change gains importance considering that there has been major deterioration in preparation of project reports after consultancy firms bagged projects quoting very low and unsustainable prices. Poor project preparation impacts quality of work and results in delay in implementation. In developed countries such as Japan and Australia, govt entities pay more attention and time to preparation for DPRs for perfect execution.Officials admitted that there have been several cases where the prices quoted for preparing DPRs was as low as Rs 70,000-Rs 80,000 per km. “At such a low cost, no one can prepare a good DPR. Field surveys cost more than such quoted price. That was the trigger for fixing the cost, which approximately comes to Rs 4-5 lakh for one km of 4-6 lane highway. This is barely 0.5% of the overall project cost. In most other countries the payment made for DPR preparation is around 10% of project cost,” an official said.He added that provisions have been made where companies that have key personnel from top 50 reputed technical institutes, such as IITs and NITs, will get a better score. “So, the entire framework of technical score, including the marks for ratings, is aimed at getting serious and quality players to bid for DRP works,”an NHAI official said.