The Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services, Murad Saeed,launched an e-bidding system for the National Highways Authority (NHA).

The announcement came on Thursday in a ceremony held at the NHA head officein Islamabad. According to a press release, the system has been developedin the spirit of transparency during the process of the NHA awardingcontracts.The ceremony was attended by the Minister himself, Secretary CommunicationsZafar Hasan, the Chairman of the NHA, Captain (ret) Sikander Qayyum,himself, and other officials.

The e-bidding portal not only aims to make the process more transparent,but will also be a way of making the process easier, simpler, and moreefficient. Minister Murad Saeed, in his address, mentioned that this was inaccordance with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s long-term vision. The currentgovernment, he said, has constantly been coming up with ways to bettergovernment processes through the use of automation and digitisation.

The NHA deals with contract that are worth billions of rupees at a time,informed the Minister. This was a way of ensuring that the money went tothe worthiest contractors. Murad Saeed also mentioned that the NHA plans onstarting road building projects on a Public Private Partnership (PPP)basis. He mentioned the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway project and how workwould be started on it next year.