Vendor Registration and Online Bid Submission in CPWD

CPWD Vendor Registration: The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is a key buyer of roads and buildings across India. There is a well-established procedure to register as a contractor in CPWD. Broadly, there are 2 categories in which the vendor enlistment or registration is done: Roads and Buildings and Horticulture. Under Roads and Buildings, contractors are registered under 9 sub-categories, as of 2024. These are:

• Class I (Super) – Up to 650 Crores
• Class I (AAA) – Up to 260 Crores
• Class I (AA) – Up to 130 Crores
• Class I (A) – Up to 75 Crores
• Class I – Up to 50 Crores
• Class II – Up to 15 Crores
• Class III – Up to 4 Crores
• Class IV – Up to 1.3 Crores
• Class V – Up to 0.4 Crores 

In horticulture, the vendors can get registered in upto 5 classes, wherein Class I is the highest with a limit of 3 Crores. A key criterion to get enlisted as a CPWD contractor is the magnitude of work experience of the contractor (i.e., completed works). There are different amounts and the number of completed works set for each class, to qualify. For example, to qualify for the Class I (Super) category, a contractor must have executed one work with a value of INR 420 Crores or two works with a value of INR 210 crores or three works with a value of INR 140 Crores. Besides the work experience, the contractors must be financially sound measured by the net-worth certificate, average annual turnover and banker’s certificate. Again, different values are set for each of the three criteria, for the different class of contractors.

The vendors seeking to get enlisted are required to pay a fee ranging from 3000 to 40,000. To get registered in the Class I (Super) category, the vendor is required to pay 40,000 and the classes below, the fee is somewhat lesser. The registration for Class I to Class V is decentralized at the regional level in 15 locations. Registration for the Class I (A) and above is done centrally by the DG, CPWD in the Delhi office. The enlistment certificate issued by the CPWD is valid for a period of 5 years from the date of issue of the enlistment order. Refer to the CPWD web portal for further details: https://cpwd.gov.in. 

Online Bid Submission in CPWD: The CPWD portal https://etender.cpwd.gov.in is one of the largest and most active e-Tendering portals in India. As of September 2024, more than 80,000 tenders were processed online using the CPWD portal. A vendor seeking to respond to the tenders published online in the portal needs to get registered in the portal. For which, the vendors need to get registered by uploading the following key documents online, attested by the authorized personnel of the company: GST certificate, PAN card and Turnover certificate. 

A vendor seeking to participate in tenders published online need to comply with the minimum system requirements specified in the CPWD portal. Further, it needs to install a prescribed version of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox web browser or Chrome browsers. It is compulsory for users to install a CPWDsigner utility, required to read the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificates used for digital signature. A user in the CPWD portal is required to sign in with its login name and password. In addition, it is required to authenticate its identity using a valid Class-III digital signature certificate (DSC). Besides, the DSC, the vendors are required to upload an encryption certificate as well. 

A vendor registration form submitted online needs to be approved by the CPWD. After registering in the portal, the vendor can login, select a tender and then initiate the bid submission. To submit a bid online, the vendors are required to fill an online form and upload the files required in the tender. After a bid is successfully submitted, the system generates a bid acknowledgement number. Until expiry of the bid submission due date, the vendors can edit their submitted bids. Upon start of the bid evaluation, a bidders can ordinarily view the bids submitted by other vendors against the tender. An online pre-bid clarification functionality is available in the portal, which the vendors can use to seek clarifications against the tender. Also, the system allows the vendors to create multiple user IDs against the same tax ID. 

Refer https://etender.cpwd.gov.in for the latest details about the process to be followed to submit bids online in the CPWD portal. In the Tendersniper portal, a consolidated view of the tenders published by CPWD in its portal and in the GEM portal are available at the CPWD tenders page.