In a major decentralisation initiative, the power of accepting and approving tenders up to a value of Rs 200 crore have been delegated to regional offices of Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to speed up implementation of projects.
After an extensive review of factors resulting in delayed implementation of projects by CPWD, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has delegated to Regional Work Boards financial powers to accept and approve tenders up to Rs 200 crore.
This amounts to substantial decentralisation given that the existing power of regional offices is to approve tenders up to only Rs 30 cr. Further to this delegation, only less than 1 per cent of project proposals would come to the Central Works Board of CPWD.
CPWD is currently processing a total of 3,832 proposals for finalization of tenders. Of these 99 per cent would now be decided at regional level instead of coming to CPWD headquarters in New Delhi.
Of the 1,928 works in progress currently costing a total of Rs 20,370 cr, only 16 tenders were of the value of more than Rs 200 cr each, giving an indication of the impact of financial delegation approved by the Minister.
While addressing the over 30,000 employees of CPWD through video conferencing on September 9, 2014, Naidu expressed his desire that most of the decision making and financial approvals be at the level of regional offices of CPWD for speedy execution of works.
