Construction & Infrastructure

Who buys in this sector

Four kinds of buyer put civil works out to tender, each keeping its notices somewhere different.

Central authorities. The National Highways Authority of India publishes under its own name and takes the bids on NIC's Government eProcurement System at etenders.gov.in (opens in a new tab), where it stands in the organisation list beside BSNL and AAI.

Indian Railways, which is not on NIC's software at all. Zonal railways, production units and construction organisations tender on the Indian Railways E-Procurement System (opens in a new tab), built by CRIS: e-tenders for goods, services and works, with vendor approval through UVAM in the same account.

Public-sector undertakings with civil work of their own. NTPC's tenders, its pre-qualification notices included, run on a dedicated instance of NIC's software, and Coal India and its subsidiaries have another. NHPC keeps a tender hub of its own (tenders, corrigenda, awards, banned firms and vendor empanelment) but sends the bid to the Central Public Procurement Portal, adding on the notice that “Enrolment on the CPP Portal is free of charge.”

States and the bodies under them, which is where a working contractor meets the trade: public works and irrigation departments, water boards, municipal corporations and development authorities, on the state's own portal. Odisha's instance carries the works and goods tenders of state departments, boards and municipal bodies, and Telangana runs a platform of its own “being used by all Government Departments, Public Sector Undertakings, Urban Local Bodies and Universities in the State.”

Defence works are advertised separately, on the Ministry of Defence's own instance at defproc.gov.in (opens in a new tab).

What they tender for

The rulebook a central buyer applies to any of these is the Manual for Procurement of Works, Second Edition, 2025, which the Department of Expenditure describes as “intended primarily for Ministries and Departments with limited in house engineering capacity”, with larger works procured “through the agency of Public Works Organisations (PWO) or Public Works CPSEs”. Engineering departments with codes of their own follow those codes instead, which is the first reason two tenders for the same work read differently; the manuals and their editions are on The rules.

Where the tenders are published

Two systems carry a central notice. Under Rule 159 of GFR 2017 a buyer publishes its tender enquiry, corrigenda and award of contract on the Central Public Procurement Portal; under Rule 160 the bids are received electronically. The ePublishing half of that portal takes the notice from organisations that bid elsewhere, which is why an NHPC work appears there even when the bid does not. The eProcurement half carries the whole tender, from the free download of the schedule to the bid.

So one job can sit in three places: the buyer's site for the notice, the portal named in it for the bid, and the state portal for state work. Which portal is which is on The portals, and a moved deadline arrives as a corrigendum rather than a fresh notice, as how a tender changes after it is published sets out.

The clauses that decide eligibility here

A works tender puts its qualification requirements in one section, and para 3.9.1(4) of the Works Manual 2025 names the attributes a buyer draws them from.

• General construction experience: an annual value of general construction work, certified by a chartered accountant, achieved in any year over a stated period and arrived at by applying a multiplier to the projected annual construction expenditure on the subject contract.
• Particular construction experience: similar works “successfully completed or substantially completed” within a stated recent period, each of a stated fraction of the estimated cost; the manual defines a substantially completed work and has the Engineer-in-Charge or the Employer certify it.
• Available bid capacity: a formula written into the manual, built on the value of engineering works executed in a single year during the recent past.
• Registration class with the department or public works organisation, where it keeps one; the equipment offered; and named key staff.

The multiplier, the number of similar works, the fractions they must reach and the bid-capacity formula are stated once on this site, on similar work and turnover.

Two provisions in the same chapter are worth knowing by name. Prior turnover and prior experience “may be relaxed for Startups (only to startups recognized by Department of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT))”, and that relaxation “is not optional, but has to be ensured, except in case of procurement of items related to public safety”. And on what a buyer may hold against a bid: “Any criteria not specified in the tender cannot be used for evaluation or qualification.”

Where a joint venture is allowed, Annexure 13 is the template a buyer copies: a lead member with a controlling interest, a floor under every other member's share, a ceiling on the number of members, technical eligibility met “either by the Joint Venture (JV) as a whole or by the Lead Member of the JV”, and every document including the PAN with the procuring entity before the agreement is signed. The shares and the deadline are on joint ventures in works tenders; a missed clause is why bids are rejected at technical evaluation.

Money in these bids

This is general information; confirm with the tender document and your adviser.

A works bid carries money at three stages.

With the bid. Bid security, or the declaration in its place. The Works Manual sets out the instruments: “Bid security may be obtained in the form of insurance surety bonds, account payee demand draft, banker's cheque, or bank guarantee (including e-bank guarantee).”Department of Expenditure, Ministry of FinanceWhere a bid-securing declaration is taken instead of a deposit, breaking it “shall be considered as a violation of Code on Integrity and they shall be debarred for the time period specified in the BSD”. The band, the exemptions and the declaration itself are on EMD exemptions and the bid-securing declaration.

On award. Performance security under Rule 171 of GFR 2017, which for works means performance security together with the security deposit or retention money; the office memorandum of 1 January 2024 amended Rule 171(i) and left the works band where it stood. Rule 171(ii) keeps that security valid beyond every contractual obligation including warranty, and Rule 171(iii) refunds the bid security to the winner on receipt of it. The instruments now accepted are on what is held back after you win.

Through the contract. Retention deducted from each running bill and released against the defect liability period; the four sums and the dates each comes back on are on Money in a bid.

One deduction is not the buyer's security at all: a government department deducts tax at source under two Acts before a running bill is paid, and the rates and thresholds belong to an accountant rather than a tender page.