Publication / invitation
RFP/NIT issued on 08.07.2026.
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Use, Operation and Maintenance of Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) Infrastructure along the Hyderabad - Bengaluru Corridor on Lease Basis
National Highways Logistics Management Limited · Hyderabad - Bengaluru Corridor2026_NHAI_283464_1
Written by TenderKart AI from the documents published when it was generated. Check the tender for later corrigenda before you bid.
8 Jul 2026
13 Aug 2026
₹1 Cr
All important dates as they stand after corrigenda: publication, pre-bid/clarification deadline, bid submission deadline, bid opening, and bid validity period.
RFP/NIT issued on 08.07.2026.
Pre-bid meeting: 15.07.2026 at 15:00 Hrs IST, held by Webex. The schedule states 30.07.2026 as the last date for receiving queries; this conflicts with Clause 3.2’s relative deadlines and is flagged under contradictions.
30.07.2026 up to 15:00 Hrs IST.
31.07.2026 at 15:30 Hrs IST.
180 days from the Bid Due Date or extended Bid Due Date; a shorter validity is summarily rejected.
Tender value or estimated cost, EMD/bid security (amount, acceptable forms, validity), tender document fees, performance security, and key payment terms.
No estimated tender value or reserve lease rent is stated. Bidders quote an upfront lease rent for 20 years; award is based on the highest evaluated lease rent, with multiple-cable bids compared by average price per cable.
Rs.20,000 + 18% GST = Rs.23,600, payable online through the SFMS Gateway; upload payment proof and Transaction ID/Reference Number.
Rs.1 Crore. Acceptable forms: IRDAI-authorised Insurance Surety Bond; NEFT/RTGS/IMPS with UTR/date/account proof; or bank guarantee from an RBI-authorised scheduled commercial bank meeting the stated Rs.1000 crore Indian-operations net-worth threshold. BG/Surety validity is 240 days from Bid Due Date, inclusive of a 60-day claim period.
EMD is forfeited for withdrawal during bid validity or selected-bidder failure to sign the agreement and/or furnish the quoted upfront lease rent; this also carries a two-year NHLML tender debarment.
The RFP does not specify a performance-security amount, form, timing or validity, although the Lease Agreement uses “Performance Security” as the threshold for a payment-default termination trigger. Clarification is essential before pricing.
10% within 15 days of LoA; inspect all OFC assets within 15 days after that payment; 80% when signing the contract within 15 days after inspection; final 10% after joint handover/takeover within 15 days of contract signing.
Bidder bears all duties, taxes, royalties and levies; electricity is paid from sub-meter consumption. Unspecified payment periods default to 30 days after demand; late amounts attract 8% p.a., accruing daily and compounded quarterly.
Every pass/fail eligibility and qualification requirement: experience and past performance, turnover/net worth, registrations and certifications, consortium/JV rules, and debarment or blacklisting conditions.
Clause 2.1 requires a company incorporated/existing under the Companies Act, 1956/2013 and a valid DoT licence/IP registration or other applicable permit authorising OFC service use. Clause 3.1.4 later permits several non-company forms; this conflict is separately flagged.
Within the 10 years before Bid Due Date, constructed and/or operated and maintained OFC equal to the cumulative end-to-end complete 96F OFC length bid. Construction must both commence and complete in that 10-year window; OPGW/ADSS/aerial power-line OFC qualifies; fibre capacity may vary; O&M experience must be at least 2 years. The RFP cites 501.48 km here but 501.05 km elsewhere.
Minimum Net Worth for FY 2024-25: Rs.30 Cr. The bidder/lead member may use its own net worth or one Affiliate’s, not both; that Affiliate must pre-date the NIT and remain affiliated until the bidder independently meets both capacities. Consolidated bidder-plus-affiliate net worth is prohibited.
Maximum 3 members. Each member must satisfy incorporation/integrity/non-default conditions; the Lead Member supplies the telecom licence and only Lead/Lead Affiliate credentials count for technical capacity. Members are jointly and severally liable, no duplicate participation or post-bid composition change is allowed, and a Joint Bidding Agreement and lead-member authority are required.
Bidder, directors, promoters and affiliates must not be RBI willful defaulters, convicted for financial crime/money laundering, or blacklisted/debarred/suspended for Indian public procurement. Bidder/promoters must have no NPA account; no subsisting Central Government/controlled-entity bar is allowed.
In the last 3 years, bidder/affiliate must not have failed a contract as evidenced by arbitral/judicial penalty, been expelled, or had a public-entity contract terminated for breach, subject only to the Authority’s discretionary written waiver. Bidder/JV members must also not be a current non-performing party under the listed OFC project defaults.
Any bidder from a country sharing a land border with India is eligible only if registered with the specified Competent Authority; the prescribed compliance certificate is mandatory and false certification triggers rejection/termination and legal action.
Misleading/false representation, deliberate suppression, poor performance/abandonment, corrupt-practice ineligibility, Authority debarment, tampering, canvassing or attempting to influence evaluation can reject/disqualify the bid.
What is being procured: the work, supplies or services, deliverables and quantities, locations, phases, completion or delivery timelines, applicable standards, and notable exclusions.
Twenty-year lease, on an “as is where is” basis, to use, operate and maintain the existing Hyderabad–Bengaluru OFC infrastructure and allied facilities. Licensee may sell bandwidth/grant compliant third-party OFC use but receives no ownership interest.
Hyderabad chainage 34 on NH-44 to Bengaluru chainage 534.65 on NH-44; stated route length 501.05 km. Two packages/cables, each 96F (48P). The length is indicative and may vary by ±5%; price adjusts pro rata only beyond ±5%.
Continuous network operation, monitoring and real-time supervision; routine/preventive/corrective maintenance; immediate restoration of cuts/damage; asset security; highway/utility coordination; updated maps, OTDR reports and logs; periodic compliance reporting; customer billing/service delivery; and support for Authority inspection/audit.
Includes ducts/fibre, 1,572 manholes/handholes, 774 joint closures, 2,022 route markers, nine Telco Rooms, one NOC, and associated racks, power, DG, UPS, CCTV, fire detection, NMS/GIS and RFMS items. Detailed point-of-presence and span inventory appears at RFP pp.109-117.
Licensee bears all O&M, repairs, permits, prudent/applicable-law insurance, electricity and statutory costs; must follow Applicable Laws/Permits, Good Industry Practice, DoT licensing, TRAI, provisioning/security guidelines and the Indian Telegraph Act. NHLML has no O&M role during the lease.
After LoA, asset inspection and joint memorandum precede contract/handover. At expiry or earlier termination, return OFC/premises free of encumbrances and cure defects; licensee bears divestment costs. At 20-year expiry assets return in similar condition, reasonable wear and tear excepted.
The complete checklist of documents to submit — mandatory vs conditional, with any prescribed formats, proformas or annexures — plus how to submit: portal and mode, envelope/cover structure, digital signature requirements, signing and attestation rules, and physical originals with their deadline.
Submit one bid online only at https://etenders.gov.in: separate technical and financial proposals in electronic form. Financial information disclosed in the technical proposal causes summary rejection. Proposal must be in English, indexed and page-numbered.
Class-III DSC is mandatory in the authorised signatory/firm/organisation/owner name, in bidder capacity or Lead Member capacity. The POA holder or POA-delegating person must be the digital signatory; otherwise the bid is non-responsive.
Technical and financial proposals must be signed by the authorised representative; every page initialled. Corrected overwriting must be initialled. Company bids require POA and notarised MOA/AOA; foreign-origin POAs and experience certificates require legalisation/apostille as applicable.
Initial bid is online only. After evaluation, only the selected bidder must deliver originals of Bid Security, signing POA, Lead Member POA (if any), Joint Bidding Agreement (if any), Integrity Pact and apostilled foreign experience certificates. Failure causes unconditional five-year debarment. RFP says after result; NIT says before LoA, so safest deadline is before LoA.
Every corrigendum/addendum in order — what changed (original vs amended value), its impact, and the action for the bidder — ending with the values that finally apply.
The sole corrigendum did not amend a commercial, eligibility or submission term. It operationalised/confirmed the pre-bid meeting for 15.07.2026 at 03:00 PM and supplied Webex meeting number 2518 838 8410 and password 123456; all other terms remained unchanged. Bidder action: use the issued VC link/credentials and continue on the original RFP terms.
Publication 08.07.2026; pre-bid 15.07.2026 at 15:00; schedule query deadline 30.07.2026; bid due 30.07.2026 at 15:00; technical opening 31.07.2026 at 15:30; bid validity 180 days from bid due/extended bid due date. No amount or eligibility condition was amended by Corrigendum 1.
Genuine conflicts within and across the documents (original vs corrigenda, clause vs annexure, tender document vs BOQ): both sides with citations, and which value prevails.
Clause 2.1(i) restricts bidder to a Companies Act company, while Clause 3.1.4 allows companies, partnerships, LLPs, societies, proprietorships and individuals. No corrigendum resolves this and the RFP gives no hierarchy between these bidding clauses; bidders outside company form should not assume eligibility and must obtain written clarification.
Project tables and Schedule I state 501.05 km, while technical eligibility says cumulative length 501.48 km. The specific qualification clause may be evaluated literally, but the conflict is unresolved; seek confirmation and demonstrate at least 501.48 km until amended.
Clause 1.12 gives 30.07.2026 as the last date for queries. Clause 3.2(a) says no later than 15 days before the 30.07.2026 bid deadline (15.07.2026), while Clause 3.2(d) says one week before the 15.07.2026 pre-bid meeting (08.07.2026). Corrigendum 1 confirms the meeting but says all other terms remain unchanged. No deadline clearly prevails; obtain portal confirmation before relying on 30.07.2026.
Clause 2.2 requires members/nominees collectively to hold 100% of SPV equity throughout the entire term and Lead Member ≥26%. Clause 3.1.8 instead requires collective ≥51% throughout, evaluated members ≥26% for only 2 years, and the lead to hold a “majority” while also saying at least 26%. No bidding-clause hierarchy resolves this; comply with the stricter 100% collective holding and obtain clarification on lead majority/lock-in.
Clause 2.2 says consortium net worth is considered, while Clauses 4.1 and 7.1.1 impose member floors: lead ≥50%, each other JV partner ≥30%, jointly 100% of Rs.30 Cr. The latter is the more specific evaluation rule and should be followed, but written confirmation is advisable.
RFP introduction describes three OFC ducts as 40/33 mm and NOC as 5x5 m; Lease Agreement obligations call them 43/30 mm, while detailed inventory calls the NOC 5x4x2.7 m. The Lease Agreement prevails over other project documents under Clause 1.3.1, but the physical asset dimensions remain internally inconsistent and must be verified in joint inspection/pre-bid clarification.
NIT says Bid Security, Document Fee, signing POA, Integrity Pact, apostilled experience certificates and other specified documents must be submitted physically by the preferred bidder before LoA. RFP Clause 8.1 omits Document Fee and narrows the listed originals, after evaluation. The latest corrigendum does not resolve this; follow the broader NIT list before LoA unless Authority confirms otherwise.
Only critical, tender-specific pre-bid queries that could materially change bid/no-bid, pricing, eligibility or contractual risk. Skip generic or obvious questions the documents already answer clearly.
Please confirm whether non-company entities (partnership/LLP/society/proprietorship/individual) are eligible despite Clause 2.1(i), and identify the clause that will govern evaluation.
Please issue one consolidated JV rule covering Lead/other-member net-worth contributions, Lead equity, collective SPV holding and lock-in period, reconciling Clauses 2.2, 3.1.8, 4.1 and 7.1.1.
Please confirm the qualification length (501.05 or 501.48 km), actual duct size (40/33 or 43/30 mm), NOC dimensions (5x5 or 5x4 m), fibre test results/current defects, and whether all inventory in pp.109-117 is functional at handover.
Please provide the complete SLA: availability/uptime, response and restoration times, measurement method, planned-maintenance exclusions, service credits/penalties and default thresholds. The RFP promises “prescribed” response times and SLA compliance but prints no measurable schedule.
Please state performance-security amount, form, validity, replenishment and release, and define the “liquidated damages” for delayed lease payments. Both are used in the termination trigger but nowhere quantified.
Please confirm the operative query deadline and the exact original-document checklist/deadline, including whether Document Fee proof must be physically delivered before LoA.
Commercial, legal and execution risks a bidder should weigh: liquidated damages and penalties, unusual or one-sided clauses, tight timelines, and payment or security risks.
90% of upfront lease rent is paid by contract signing after a short inspection window; the last 10% follows handover. The RFP provides no performance security from NHLML and only limited LD for delayed licence grant, capped at 20% of the Rs.1 crore Bid Security.
Licensee accepts site/OFC, ground, technical and business viability risks, waives claims for errors/inadequate information and cannot use market change as an excuse for non-payment. Complete physical and OTDR diligence is therefore critical before the 90% payment.
Licensee bears all repair/O&M, permits, insurance, electricity and statutory costs. If cables/ducts go to separate lessees, maintenance of the third duct and the full network/Telco/NOC/electricity costs are split, but allocation/governance mechanics are not detailed.
The tender requires uptime, prescribed restoration times and telecom-guideline SLA but provides no measurable SLA or bidder penalty table. “Performance Security” and payment liquidated damages are referenced only in a termination trigger without amount/form/validity.
Late sums attract 8% p.a. compounded quarterly. A broad 60-day cure applies where unspecified, and numerous events permit termination; on termination NHLML immediately controls the project and can appoint another licensee despite pending proceedings.
Route length is indicative; no price adjustment occurs within ±5%, and alignment/duct/chamber/Telco-room changes do not adjust consideration. Conflicting route length, duct and NOC dimensions increase pricing uncertainty.
EMD default leads to two-year NHLML debarment; failure by the selected bidder to submit originals leads to unconditional five-year Authority-project debarment; debarment/non-performer status extends to associated firms and all JV members.
At expiry/termination, licensee must cure all defects, transfer the assets free of encumbrance, keep performing until termination is effective, and bear all divestment/stamp costs.
The inviting authority and relevant contacts: office, person, designation, address, phone and email — and which address receives physical submissions, if any.
Chief Operating Officer, National Highways Logistics Management Limited, 2nd Floor, D-21 Corporate Park, Sector-21, Dwarka, New Delhi – 110077. Tel: 011-25308800. Email: [email protected].
Pre-bid notice is signed by Gaurang Garg, Sr. Manager (MMLP). Queries are directed to [email protected]; no personal phone/email is stated for him.
Bid covering letter and physical-original correspondence are addressed to the COO at NHLML, 2nd Floor, D-21 Corporate Park, Dwarka, Sector-21, New Delhi – 110077, India.