EPC Contractors to Maintain Roads for 3 Years
By NewsDesk
The contractors executing the National Highway projects of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways having total project cost for more than Rs. 5 crore will now have to maintain the works for 3 years. The Ministry has made amendments in the Standard Bidding Document for EPC projects whereby the Defect Liability Period has been increased to three years from the present one year.
The amendments have been necessitated as there were concerns that some works completed under contracts as per Standard Bidding Document have shown signs of premature failures or damages. At times the defects appear slightly belatedly when the defect liability period is either over or about to be over. As a result, it becomes the liability of the government to rectify the defects at its own cost and face criticism of accepting sub standard works. This has prompted the Ministry to increase the Defect Liability Period to 3 years so that these defects appearing within a reasonable time are rectified at contractor’s cost. This may cause the bids to be slightly higher than the usual, but will be a strong deterrent against indifferent quality of work done by contractors.
Source: PIB
