India: local-content preference margin in NHAI Maharashtra (N-P-K Combined-Bid) road tender (INR 7,343.33 crore)

Mechanism

The legal instrument is the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade's (DPIIT) Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 (as amended, Order No. P-45021/2/2017-B.E.-II), which requires government purchasers to give a bid-evaluation margin to suppliers meeting a minimum local-content threshold ("Class-I local supplier") in tenders above specified value thresholds. NHAI applied this standing order to the combined-bid package of its N-P-K (Nagpur-Pandharkawada) road corridor tender in Maharashtra, published 7 August 2025 with a Global Trade Alert-assessed value of INR 7,343.33 crore. This is one of several NHAI tenders in the same N-P-K corridor series carrying the same localisation mechanism (see responds_to-free siblings filed separately by package/value), rather than a standalone policy action — the underlying instrument is the 2017 order itself.

Downstream implications

• Foreign civil-engineering and EPC contractors bidding on this package

face a structural bid-evaluation disadvantage versus Indian Class-I suppliers unless they meet the local-content threshold or partner with a qualifying domestic entity.

• Part of a recurring pattern across NHAI's FY25-26 tender pipeline;

cumulative value of localisation-margin-bearing NHAI road tenders filed in the register is now in the tens of thousands of crore.

Open questions

• Exact local-content percentage threshold applied to this specific

package (the 2017 order sets category-specific thresholds; NHAI's RFP document itself is not publicly mirrored outside the subscription GTA/e-procurement portals).

• Whether "Combined-Bid" denotes a single combined package or an

aggregate figure spanning multiple physical stretches of the N-P-K corridor.