Gujarat Rural Roads Project (Credit 1757-IN) : World Bank supervision mission (May 25 - May 30, 1987)

 73080 - · IHlllA. GUJARAT RURAL ROADS PROJECT Credit 1757-1N IDA Supervision Missjon - May 25-30. 1987 Aide Memoire No.3 1. This document records the discussion and findings of a mission to Gujarat by C.J.D. Lane and C.S. Nawathe, but is not binding upon the Bank until confirmed in writing from Washington. During the visit, the mission met Messrs A.J. Trivedi (CE Roads), P.V. Patel (OSD PPM Cell) and the Superintending Engineer Project Circle, Gandhinagar, and his staff. The mission records its thanks to Mr. A.J. Trivedi, who gave of his time when heavilY involved with the Prime Minister's visit and to those of his officers who facilitated the mission's work. 2. This aide memoire covers points outstanding from Aide Memoire No.1 and Aide Memoire No.2 (Mr. Nawathe's visit in-April) and discusses new issues. Details of each topic and action required are covered in Annex 1. 3. The mission was pleased to note that its previous comments on staffing have been taken up and that a Superintending Engineer is to be appointed within one month and a Chief Engineer in three to six months. R&B procedures and specifications are well known to all staff and standardized to such a degree that frequent staff changes are possible without loss of efficiency. However, the procedures, technical methods and specifications and documents to be used on the project contain many differences from normal procedures and it is important to reduce staff turnover to a minimum. 4. The mission is pleased to note that acceptable documents and a press notice have been approved for 13 packages using concurrent prequalification procedure, and that agencies could be fixed by August 1-15, 1987 for work to the value of Rs 50 million covering 200 km of work. A second group of packages will be floated in August, preceded by a separate prequalification exercise. A prequalification questionnaire has been provisionally agreed in draft, but the evaluation criteria needs to be fixed. Generally, those adopted for the Expressway should be followed, and Mr. Nawathe will be giving further advice (and final clearance) on criteria from other exercises in India. 5. However, we have had further discussion with our central advisers on prequalification. Taking into account the size and number of contracts and cognizant of the Indian tendency to challenge prequalification decisions in court and hold up fixing of agencies, they have suggested as an alternative. developing fairly mechanistic numerically based Eligibility Criteria for prospective bidders but stating that award of contract would be subject to post-bid verification using clause 9 of Instructions for Tenderers. The attachment gives a draft of such criteria. This avoids the problem of having to exercise  -2- judgement on the fitness of a large number of firms ~ho then usually maintain that prequalification means that their bid must be accepted. The approach outlined above means that a coarse screening is applied mostly by the firms themselves, but your rights to make an exhaustive enquiry into the ability of a much smaller number of potentially lo~ bidders is preserved. 6. Your comments on this suggestion are welcome. Various engineers have requested guidance on criteria by which to judge prequalification data. How much credit is enough? How much equipment is necessary? These questions do not have neat answers. Personnel and equipment resources are the easiest to judge. Ask yourself how many engineers ~ would need to do the job and is the equipment available or proposed for hire sufficient in ~ experience to meet the work programme or completion date? Financial strength and cash or credit requirements are harder to judge. The most crucial figure is cash available to carry out the ~orks. It is generally assumed that anything less than the estimated value of 4 months ~ork is too little, and would cause the contractor difficulty in paying his suppliers or labour and in keeping the job running. Cash flow can take into account any advances made by the employer but retention money and repayment of advances should be deducted. An Asian Development Bank publication giving (on p. 9) good illustrations of financial condition assessments is attached for your guidance. 7. The mission is also pleased to note progress in training, equipment procurement. the project monitoring and maintenance planning consultancies. We recommend appointment of a training liaison officer (part time). and an immediate start to the programme. 8. The mission is pleased to note that the average contract size in the first 13 packages is about Rs 5 million and over half are for stage I and II ~orks combined. However the mission feels that R&BD has still not fully accepted the idea of single contracts for new construction--the bulk of ~hich is still to come. The mission ~ishes to stress that there is nothing incompatible with letting a contract for all stages of construction and allowing parts of the works to be open to traffic during the ~et season "to seek out the weak spots". However the contractor should be made aware of this and include in his rates, allowances for making good rain cuts and re-shaping of the pavement after the monsoon, if necessary. Ho~ever, if compaction is properly carried out and verified by testing at all stages, there should be no weak spots, and the contractor could complete and hand over whole sections of road built bet~een monsoons. The important point about eliminating horizontal slicing is to .place responsibility for the whole of the works in the hands of one contractor. He may subcontract but remains responsible. Future missions ~ill pursue this point further and depending on experience press for some larger sized contracts.  '2m _! -3- 9. The mission was also pleased to note that the IRC Specification for Road and Bridge Works has been adopted in the standard documents. However we strongly advocate retention of the IRC clause numbers. The idea is that Clause 509.1 shall mean the same wherever and by whomsoever it 1s used. and when updated by DOST it would be automatically updated India-wide. It might even be a good idea to insist that every contractor has his own copy and reference to clause number would suffice. CJDLane:mc  INDIA GUJARAT RURAL ROADS PROJECT, Credit 1757-IN Project Component Status Action Required I. flvll Wurks Administrative Approval granted for a programme GOG should administer as a total value Approval of works. programme and not seek re-approval for variations to Individual jobs. Invitation Press announcement, concurrent Invite tenders and award contracts. of Bids prequaliflcatlon questionnaire (PQ) Prepare Contract Information Sheet (CIS) ready for first group. CompriSing and use as the main means to keep Bank 13 packages. Value Rs 50 m 200 km. Informed via New Delhi office NOD. When Second group documents ready. signed, one copy of each contract to NOD. Prequallficatlon Same questionnaire as above will be used. Prequaliflcatlon will be accorded separately for each round. Tender evaluation Document refers to lowest responsive ExEns must be Instructed that unrealIstI- bids. cally low rates must be regarded as rendering a bid non-responsive. 2. Equipment Purchase Draft ICa document being amended for Documentation should be drawn up for SAR remaining three Items. LCB document lists A (IC6) and 6 (LCa and OGS&O) and to be prepared for remainder. C (LC6) or 3 Invited quotes; foreign If local market cannot supply. NOD will supply sample bidding documents and typical evaluation points table. Liaison Is required with manager of road construction program to decide quantities of Items to buy and their phasing. First batch of contracts wi II give Indication of demand for R&BO equlpmont from contractors. OGS&D purchase proposals must show that offer chosen Is for higher evaluated offer, using points table. 3. !>roJect Mana9~ent Agreement In principle to create Create a Project Management office for Monitoring and post of Chief Engineer. centralization of monitoring and accounting 'U information and to locate English language P} Accounting on typewriter. photocopiers, computers, etc. ro CD (NS AIC necessary). Establish heads of X accounts, accounting proceduros, management t-' t-' of revolving fund, etc., Including procedure 0, H) for withdrawals. tv Proposal received from ORG for Negotiate agreement with DRG as discussed. I monitoring. Project Component S~atus Action Required 4. Training Outline Program from Table 3.4 Course materials should be developed (with has been modified and a detailed help of NITHE, Delhi and NICMAR, Bombay), program has been prepared for and an Immediate start made to courses when courses at ESC "Introduction to ready. Emphasis on attendance by contractors' MOST specs." and "Rural Roads staff, where appropriate, by press announce- Survey and Design" Including ments. Funds to be made available to SEC to nomination of visiting lecturers. gear up for courses. Training Coordinator to be appointed, who must Initially call for program and proposed arrangements from Mechanical Branch and GERI. Terms of Reference agreed to by Bank to review revised TOR, with view to GOI/GOG. Shortlist of consultants simplification, and propose a draft Letter of establish (see Attachment A). Invitation. Bank agrees that maximum use of R&BO and GERI staff to minimize cost of consultants' time. but In view of Maintenance Planning being a new subject, now warmly embraced by DOST. Bank feels that Involvement of proven foreign consultant Is necessary. June 12,1987 CJOLane:mc "Tt il ... P 0\ rn tv Il~ I-' o H, N  Attachment A INDIA GUJARAT RURAL ROADS PROJECT Road Maintenance Planning Study Agreed Shortlist of Consultants 1. Operation Research Group: Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Marg Vadodara Pin - 390 007 2. Consulting Engineering Services (India) Pvt. Ltd. 57 Nehru ~lace, 5th Floor New Delhi - 110 019 3. National Traffic Planning and Automation Centre 52, Community Centre East of Kailash New Delhi - 110 065 4. Engineering Consultants Private Ltd F-14/15, Connaught Place New Delhi - 110 001  I~;DIA GUJARAT RURAL ROADS PROJECT Draft Paragraph for Insertion in Press Announcements and Preamble to Tender Notice and Documents No formal prequalification exercise is being conducted, but firms must show that they meet certain criteria. Contracting companies who meet the eligibility criteria described below are invited to apply for the tender papers. Evidence that you are eligible to bid must be submitted with your application for tender papers. However, potential bidders are advised that in lieu of pre- qualification, the Department will exercise its rights under the Condi- tions of Contract to carry out post-qualification of potential low bid- ders. Under this procedure, a bidder must provide evidence with his bid* that he has available at the time of bidding, the requisite resources (financial, personnel, equipment and experience) to carry out the work. This evidence will be verified in case of potential low bidders prior to any award. * Mr. Trivedi - This means that the prequalification questionnaire is now re-named ££!!-qualification and is to be included with the draft tender papers.  -~- Eligibility Criteria: 1. Registration Give the name of the state where you are currently registered to execute road construction works, the maximum value of works you are registered for and the date of first and latest registrations. To be eligible, you must be registered at Gujarat Class A or higher or equiv- alent level in other states and have been so since April 1982. Foreign companies: Give details of registration in your home country, if any, and show that you are eligible for registration at Gujarat Class A or higher. You will be required to register if awarded a contract. Home country must be a member of World Bank/International Development. Association, Switzerland or Taiwan, China. 2. Turnover Show that you have performed satisfactorily a road and/or bridge contract of a similar nature, and of value above Rs 30 lacs Slnce April 1985, and that your turnover last year exceeded Rs 25 lacs. 3. Equipment and Personnel Show that you have at least one graduate engineer with 5 years experience, and the following equipment available:  -3- 1 - Hot mix Plant capacity 10 tph min. 1 - Asphalt Paver 3.75m width min. 1 - 8-10 ton steel wheel roller Please note that equipment may be available for hire from t~e Department, some of it purchased through the World Bank credit specially for the project, including items not currently in common use in Gujarat, e.g., pneumatic-tyred rollers, vibrating rollers, road graders, mechanized bitumen distributors, as well as more common items such as steel wheel rollers, bulldozers and tip trucks. If you are interested in increased mechanization of your works, you are invited to discuss the subject with the Department. 4. Please note that the ~ssue to you of draft tender papers by R&BD/GOG at this time is not a substitution for post-qualification, full information for which must be provided with your tenders, including an independently certified balance sheet for 1986/87. The giving of erroneous information concerning eligibility may adversely affect post-qualification. CJDLane:mc