Union
Minister for Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari said Coordination,
Cooperation and Communication under PM Gati Shakti Master plan among all
stakeholders is necessary for National Highway development ecosystem.
Addressing
NHAI Workshop on Implementation of e-BG & Insurance Surety Bonds for
Contracts in New Delhi today (24 May) he said decision making has to be time bound, transparent and result oriented.
Minister
of State Gen. (Dr.) V. K. Singh (Retd.); Shri Anurag Jain, Secretary, MoRTH;
Shri Santosh Kumar Yadav Chairman, NHAI & senior officials from MoRTH,
NeSL, IRDAI, NHAI, NHIDCL, Industry experts, representatives of banks and
insurance companies were present on the occasion.
The objective of this workshop was to
highlight the benefits of e-BGs and Insurance Surety Bonds among various
stakeholders and
expedite adoption of these instruments. Wider implementation of e-BG and
Insurance Surety Bonds will ensure greater transparency and efficiency of
processes.
The
workshop saw various presentations made by NeSL, Banks and Insurance Companies.
The sessions dwelled deeper into e-BG workflow, Regulatory Framework of Surety
Bonds and deliberated different prospectives for vendors and the beneficiaries.
NHAI has started accepting the Bid
Security and Performance Security in the form of e-BG. However, at present only 13 banks
in 19 states & Union Territories provide the facility of issuing e-BG.
Despite this, till date about 202 e-BGs pertaining to NHAI contracts have been
issued by various banks in different states through NeSL platform. NHAI is also
in touch with the insurance companies to analyze use of Insurance Surety Bonds
as an additional mode of submitting Bid Security and /or Performance Security
Deposit. The Insurance Surety Bonds, when issued, would be cost effective and
provide adequate security for NHAI projects.
A Bank Guarantee (BG) is a Financial
Instrument used as a legal contract in which a bank acts as a guarantor
and undertakes an obligation to pay the beneficiary a certain amount of money
specified in the guarantee, if the debtor from the original contract does not
fulfill his contractual obligations. Similarly, Insurance Surety Bonds are
instruments where insurance companies act as ‘Surety’ and provides the
financial guarantee that the contractor will fulfil its obligation as per the
agreed terms. Ministry of Finance, Government of India has made e-BG and
Insurance Surety Bonds at par for all Government procurements.
As India
aspires to become a $ 5 Trillion economy, instruments like the e-BG and
Insurance Surety Bonds will boost availability of liquidity and capacity, which
will help to strengthen National Highway infrastructure development and assist
the economic growth of our country.