Multi-criteria Contractor Selection Framework for Indian Construction Projects.

Abstract

In this paper contractor selection practice in India has been analyzed in detail to find out the gaps in the prevailing system & also compared with the selection systems outside India. This study aims to develop a multi-criteria contractor selection framework that can incorporate multiple evaluation criteria along with the relative weightage. In this study, it has been identified that in India, as per the guidelines the contractor selection in the case of most popular Design Bid Build (DBB) projects is done based on Least Cost Selection (LCS) only. In LCS, the final selection is based on cost or bid price only. In some cases, Quality & Cost Based Selection (QCBS) is applied for contractor selection. However, QCBS is mainly used for consultant selection or selection of service providers. On the other hand, in many other counties, there are systems that follow multiple criteria for contractor selection to ensure the overall performance of the contractor. Hence, in India, there is a need for a structured, multi-criteria contractor selection system. The system should cater to the objective of contractor selection in the case of DBB projects & also should be responsive to the present need for selection based on multiple criteria.