Engineering, Procurement and Construction of Civil Works Model Agreement

Abstract

The Central Government, State Governments and their respective undertakings have been constructing roads and other projects primarily through the conventional ‘item rate’ contracts which came into being several decades ago. These contracts served their purpose when the size of contracts was small and the capacity of private sector was limited. The environment has since undergone a sea change over time, making these contracts outdated. In particular, these contracts tend to suffer from time and cost overruns which seem to have become synonymous with public sector construction projects.