FICCI for reserve price method in project bidding

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) wants the government to add reserve pr­ice concept as a parameter in the bidding processes for infrastructure projects instead of opting purely for lowest cost bids. The government could internally fix a reserve price in bidding processes, which refl­ects the approximate project cost. The players who bid below the reserve price by a margin of over 10 per cent should be asked to pay higher bank guarantees, the Infrastructure Committee of FICCI has proposed. The idea is to prevent aggressive bidding by non-serious players with an eye on beefing up the order books.