PWD releases common rates for all govt. departments for this fiscal

Public Works Department releases revised schedule of rates (SOR) for government departments, standardizing costs in infrastructure projects.

The Public Works Department has released a common schedule of rates (SOR) for all government departments for this fiscal, as part of its efforts to standardise costs in infrastructure projects.

The revised rates have been implemented from July 15, with a hike in conveyance charges and wages of labourers. The Department has brought out three comprehensive volumes of SOR for agencies such as the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board, and departments including the State Highways, the Horticulture and the Forests.

Officials of the PWD said that the SOR listed basic rates for various materials and services for construction projects, and would enable preparation of project estimates for infrastructure schemes. Every year, the PWD would come up with a base rate, after which various government departments would finalise some of the rates. This year, however, a comprehensive list was compiled by the scheduled rates committee, comprising senior officials of the departments of Water Resources and Finance, and the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited.

The officials further said that to arrive at the SOR, the committee had considered factors such as prevailing market rates, wholesale price index, and data of the past five years and those related to wages of labourers. K.P. Sathyamurthy, the committee’s convenor and Engineer-in-Chief (PWD), said the revised SOR would increase the project estimate cost by an average of 4.5%. Workers’ wages have been increased by 10% this fiscal, factoring in the Goods and Services Tax (GST). For instance, the wage for mazdoors has been fixed at ₹716 per day and for carpenter, ₹1,073 per day. Separate categories have been formed, bringing heritage and archaeological works under the revised SOR fold, he said. “The base rate for a skilled stapathy brick mason has been fixed at ₹1,937. Conveyance charges have been hiked by 1.22%...,” he said.

While the price of cement has been fixed at ₹298 per bag, that of steel has been revised to ₹56,000 per metric tonne, adding GST. Besides, SOR has been fixed for energy conservation building code materials, pipes and plumbing materials for Chennai Metrowater and special articles for other departments to ensure that rates are uniform and government schemes are completed on time.