EPC/ Turnkey Contracts in Highway Sector
Dr. Indrasen Singh, Dean, National Institute of Construction Management and Research, Goa
The EPC way of executing a project is gaining importance worldwide. But it is also a way that needs good understanding by the EPCC, for a profitable contract execution. In an EPC contract, coordination with various agencies is a demanding task, especially in item rate contracts. Often it happened that agencies try to put the reasons of delays etc. on others. The coordination is more difficult during commissioning and post commissioning times, because each agency tries to correlate its own performance with the others. It is very likely that, in an EPC contract the communication channels get overlapped, short circuted and confused. The EPCC is the prime functionary and so there has to be conscious effort for clear messages. Proponents of the PPP philosophy maintain that India’s infrastructure development hinges on private participation. The EPC route should be resorted to only when PPP is not feasible. Relegating national highway development to the EPC mode would be a retrograde step in India’s infrastructure development story, however compelling the case of EPC winning over PPP appears in the current economic conditions.
