How we contract and how we deliver
Counterparties are usually less interested in what a contractor can build than in how it takes risk, what it will sign, and what happens when a programme slips. This page sets out our position on each.
Contract forms
| Form | Our position |
|---|---|
| Item-rate / bill of quantities | Our primary form for public works. Ten government contracts executed on this basis. |
| Lump-sum turnkey EPC | Accepted for defined scopes with a frozen design basis. We will price design risk explicitly rather than absorb it silently — an undisclosed design contingency is the most common cause of an EPC dispute. |
| EPC subcontract under a principal contractor | Currently executing three such packages at Orvakal Industrial Park totalling INR 1,171.21 crore. |
| Supply-only and supply-and-install | Accepted as a standalone scope, including where we do not hold the construction package. |
| Joint venture with a local contractor | Accepted, and preferred where a procuring authority requires local participation. We will agree the scope split, the sharing of performance security and the lead-partner responsibilities before bid submission, not after award. |
| Design-build | Accepted with a named design partner, disclosed in the bid. |
Commercial terms we are accustomed to
- Performance security by unconditional bank guarantee, typically 5 to 10 per cent of contract value, released against completion.
- Retention against certified work, released in tranches at practical completion and at the end of the defect liability period.
- Advance payment against a guarantee of equal value, recovered pro rata against certified progress.
- Liquidated damages tied to defined programme milestones, capped at an agreed percentage of contract value.
- Defect liability running beyond handover, with a retained sum held against it.
- Price adjustment on named input commodities where the programme exceeds twenty-four months — which, on a fixed-price contract of that duration, protects the client as much as it protects us, because an unhedged contractor under an inflation shock does not deliver.
Programme control
Our completed-project schedule records an average construction cycle of 2.2 years across all 65 projects, from a portfolio that ranges from 4,500 to 211,694 square feet. We run projects to a critical-path programme with monthly earned-value reporting against a baseline agreed at award, and we will report to the client's or lender's format rather than our own. Where a milestone is at risk we notify in the month it becomes at risk, with the recovery plan attached — not at the milestone date. Any client or lender is welcome to place a monitor on site with full access to our programme, procurement register and quality records.
Environmental and social requirements
Where a project is financed by a development finance institution or a commercial lender applying the Equator Principles, we contract on the basis that the applicable environmental and social requirements — including the IFC Performance Standards where they apply — are incorporated into the construction environmental and social management plan, into our method statements, and into the obligations of every subcontractor we engage. We accept independent monitoring, unannounced site audits, and the reporting obligations that follow. We do not currently hold ISO certification, and we will not claim it; where a facility requires a certified management system as a condition precedent, we will say so at tender stage and set out the timetable to obtain it.