Who publishes tenders in Karnataka

Karnataka has more than 570 tender-inviting bodies on KPPPKPPP (Karnataka Public Procurement Portal)The state's e-procurement website, kppp.karnataka.gov.in. Tenders are published, bids are submitted and fees are paid there. It replaced the older e-Procurement portal.Read in the glossary →. You will bid to perhaps five of them. This chapter is a map of the ones that matter for a works contractor, what each buys, and which registration it accepts.

PWD: roads, bridges and government buildings

The Public Works, Ports and Inland Water Transport DepartmentKPWDThe Karnataka Public Works, Ports and Inland Water Transport Department. Roads, bridges and government buildings, and the department whose contractor registration most others accept.Read in the glossary → is the department everyone means when they say PWD. State highways, major district roads, bridges, and the buildings other departments occupy: courts, hostels, offices, hospitals. It is organised in zones under a Chief Engineer, circles under a Superintending Engineer, and divisions under an Executive Engineer, and that ladder is also the ladder of contractor registration, which Module 2 covers. PWD's own registration is the one most other bodies accept.

Two sister organisations publish large road works: KRDCL (Karnataka Road Development Corporation) for state highway packages, and KSHIP for externally funded highway projects. Both use PWD-style bidding documents and both expect Class I or II registration for their typical package sizes.

Panchayat Raj Engineering: village works

The Panchayat Raj Engineering Department (PRED) and the zilla and taluk panchayats build rural roads, anganwadis, school rooms, drains and drinking-water schemes. Works are small, numerous and local, which is exactly where a new Class IV or Class III contractor gets a first work done certificateWork done certificateA certificate from the Executive Engineer stating the works you completed, their value and that they were done satisfactorily. The proof of experience behind your class.Read in the glossary →. KRIDL (Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd) executes a share of these as a government agency and then sub-lets to contractors; its tenders are published on the portal like any other.

Water: irrigation and drinking water

The Water Resources Department works through corporations, called nigams: KNNL (Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam), CNNL (Cauvery Neeravari Nigam), KBJNL and VJNL, plus the Minor Irrigation department for tanks and check dams. Canal lining, tank desilting, pump houses and the roads along canals. KUWSDB (Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board) and the Rural Drinking Water department publish pipelines, overhead tanks and treatment plants. Irrigation tenders above ₹5 crore go through a Tender Scrutiny CommitteeTender Scrutiny CommitteeA committee that reviews larger tenders before award: above ₹5 crore in PWD and irrigation departments, above ₹1 crore elsewhere. Adds weeks between closing and award.Read in the glossary →, so their award takes longer.

The cities: BBMP and the urban local bodies

BBMP (Bengaluru's municipal corporation) is the single largest publisher of small and medium works in the state: road asphalting, footpaths, drains, parks, ward offices. Every other city corporation (Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Mangaluru, Belagavi, Kalaburagi and the rest) and every city municipal council and town panchayat does the same at its own scale. BDA, BWSSB, BMRCL and the smart city companies are separate bodies with their own, often stricter, qualification rules.

Everyone else

Universities, the housing board, the police housing corporation, the slum development board, KSRTC and BMTC depots, temples under the Muzrai department, the forest department, the tourism department, and hundreds of others. Their works are irregular but sometimes uncontested: a hostel repair for a university in Ballari may attract two bids where a BBMP road attracts twenty.

How to use this map

Pick two families of buyers, not six. A contractor who knows how the PRED division in Koppal writes its BOQs and pays its bills will out-bid a stranger who reads every tender in the state. On BiddingView you can filter live tenders by department and see, for any department and district, who has been winning and at what discount. That is the map with the roads drawn in.