China Rly Construction keen to bid for highway projects.

A high-level delegation from the China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC), a Government of China Enterprise, led by its Chief Economist Zhao Jinuha, met the Chairman of the National Highways Authority of India and a team of NHAI officers.

CRCC officials stated that they would be keen to bid for projects within the framework of NHAI’s transparent and competitive e-tendering process. CRCC is one of the world’s largest integrated engineering contractors and construction groups with over $100 billion revenue and a market capitalisation of around $250 billion.

NHAI Chairman Raghav Chandra explained that they have projects lined up for upgradation of two-lane National Highways totalling 50,000 km, various special expressway projects of around 15,000 km and a part of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) over the next few years.

NHAI is also looking at various other connectivity projects in India for bypasses and ring roads around major cities contributing towards the smart cities projects.

CRCC expressed keen interest to participate in the upcoming projects of NHAI under both Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) and Hybrid Annuity Model. CRCC, apart from being the major contributor to China’s high-speed and normal, alpine and plateau railways, has provided survey and design services for highways, urban rail transit, real estates and other infrastructure projects.

The CRCC team had an in-depth discussion on participation in NHAI projects. The visiting delegation enquired about the acceptance of the Chinese technical standards, on which NHAI officials clarified that they would be acceptable only if they are higher than the prescribed standards of Indian Roads Congress.

Their queries mostly pertained to finding financial solutions with requisite internal rate of return, addressing the upward price fluctuations during construction in essential materials like bitumen, fuel, steel and cement during the period of construction.

The Chinese delegates were also keen on knowing about restrictions on sources of procurement from abroad, import certifications requirements, whether US dollars could be the currency of repayment (as annuity), availability of repayment guarantee and proof of capacity of the client (NHAI) to repay (to pay the annuity and the funding under the Hybrid Annuity Model) to provide comfort to their lenders.

NHAI officials also sought details of Chinese policy and models of concessions and funding solutions.

HBL