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AECS Research Global

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Publications

Reports & insights

Technical reports, advisories, market insights and case studies from across ARG's practices — filter by type, then read or download.

The unfinished concrete frame of a stalled building
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Cost and Time Overruns on Indian Public Projects: What the Official Data Shows

MoSPI's Flash Report for June 2026 records 1,847 central sector projects of Rs 150 crore and above carrying a revised cost of Rs 40,54,473 crore again…

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Tower cranes over a large urban construction site
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

India's Infrastructure Capital Expenditure: The Pipeline and What It Demands

The Union Budget 2026-27 allocates ₹12,21,821 crore to central capital expenditure, and roughly 47 per cent of that sits in just two ministries — Road…

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Stacked steel reinforcement mesh on a construction site
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Construction Input Costs in India: Indices, Escalation and Contract Protection

India's headline wholesale price inflation was running at 9.78 per cent in July 2026, but the published item-level indices show that cement was flat y…

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A highway toll plaza seen from the approach lanes
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

PPP and Asset Monetisation in Indian Infrastructure: The Current Framework

India's central public-private partnership machinery runs through three Department of Economic Affairs instruments — the PPP Appraisal Committee, Viab…

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Hands drawing a plan with a ruler and pencil
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Elemental Cost Planning under NRM in Indian Practice

RICS NRM 1 reached its 3rd edition in October 2021, and it requires every capital cost plan to carry the same seventeen constituents, including four s…

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A worker marking a measurement on timber with a tape measure and pencil
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Bills of Quantities and Measurement: IS 1200, CPWD Discipline, and Where Quantities Leak

A bill of quantities is only as reliable as the mode of measurement behind it, and in India that mode is carried by the IS 1200 series, by CPWD's meas…

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Concrete highway bridges carrying a road overhead
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Life-Cycle Costing for Indian Public Assets: CAPEX, OPEX and the Discount Rate

Indian public-works rules mention life-cycle cost and mandate it nowhere: the General Financial Rules and the Department of Expenditure's works manual…

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People signing a document across a table
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

The L1 Problem: What Lowest-Bid Procurement Does to Outturn Cost

Indian public procurement rules do not require award to the lowest bidder. Rule 173(xvi) of the General Financial Rules says a contract should "ordina…

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Steel reinforcement bars being fixed on a construction site
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Where the Money Actually Goes: Cost Distribution in Indian Building Projects

The percentage tables that circulate for Indian building cost distribution almost never name a source, and the documents that do exist answer a narrow…

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Two workers discussing drawings on a construction site
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Value Engineering versus Cost Cutting: What Separates Them

Value engineering has a formal definition, a published method and a test of admission: a study qualifies only if it performs function analysis and fol…

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Two construction workers in safety gear on site
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Contingency and Risk Allowance: How Much, Held by Whom, Released on What

Indian public-works practice sizes contingency by a flat percentage that has not moved across three successive departmental documents: CPWD provides 5…

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Bound ledgers and financial documents on a desk
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Setting a Cost Baseline That Survives Audit

India's public-works framework does not treat a cost baseline as a management artefact; it treats it as a sanction. Rule 136(1) of the General Financi…

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A balance sheet examined under a magnifying glass
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Preparing for a Statutory Audit of Project Cost

A statutory audit of project cost does not test whether a project was well managed. It tests whether each rupee can be traced back through a measureme…

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A whiteboard covered with planning charts
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Programme, Baseline and Critical Path: Schedule Control on Indian Projects

A construction programme is worth only what it can later prove. This report sets out what a defensible programme requires on Indian projects: how the…

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A digital thermometer being used to measure concrete temperature on site
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Quality Assurance on Site: Inspection Plans, NCRs and the Testing Regime

Quality on an Indian construction site is controlled by three interlocking instruments: an inspection and test plan, a testing regime whose frequencie…

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Stacked files and documents filling shelves
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

RFIs, Submittals and Drawing Control: Where the Approval Chain Loses Time

On an Indian project the information and approval chain runs on clocks that are written into some contracts and missing from others. This report sets…

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A worker in a helmet and vest moving across scaffolding
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Safety on Indian Construction Sites: The Record, the Law and the Cost to a Programme

India has no published national count of construction worker deaths. The statistical apparatus that exists — the Labour Bureau series compiled by DGFA…

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A calendar with a deadline marked in red beside printed charts
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Extension of Time and the Evidence Problem

Extension-of-time claims on Indian projects routinely turn on evidence rather than on entitlement: the notice was late, the programme was never accept…

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A part-built structure left standing and overgrown with vegetation
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

What Actually Delays Indian Projects: The Reported Causes and the Controls That Answer Them

Indian public projects are delayed for reasons the government itself publishes: land acquisition, forest and environmental clearance, utility shifting…

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A danger sign fixed to a wire fence
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

A Risk Register That Actually Gets Used

India has a national standard devoted to construction project risk management — IS 15883 (Part 8):2015, active and reaffirmed in 2020 — and a national…

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A stamp being applied to a document on a desk
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Administering Variations and Claims Without Losing the Record

A variation is not a failure of planning; it is a contractual mechanism with its own instruction route, valuation formula, sanction ceiling and clock.…

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An empty boardroom with a long table and glass walls
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Project Governance from Day One: Structure, Cadence and Decision Rights

Most Indian public projects do not lack a governance framework. They lack one agreed before the first liability was incurred, with thresholds matching…

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A civil engineer working on a design in CAD software
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Employer's Requirements and Design Responsibility under EPC

In a turnkey contract the Employer stops buying a design and starts buying a description of one, and the Employer's Requirements become the only docum…

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Bound legal volumes on a plain ground
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

The EPC Contract in India: What the Standard Forms Actually Allocate

Indian public works increasingly use EPC forms described as transferring construction risk wholesale to the contractor. Read clause by clause, the MoR…

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Ring binders stacked with labelled spines
Technical Report

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Tender Documents and the Bid Package: What a Compliant Indian Tender Contains

A compliant public works tender in India is assembled from a hierarchy of instruments rather than a single statute: the General Financial Rules 2017 a…

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A form being completed on a clipboard
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Bidder Qualification and the Persistence of Non-Responsive Bids

Long before a price envelope is opened, an Indian public tender has already decided who is allowed to compete. This report examines the qualification…

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A paving machine laying surfacing on a highway
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

EPC, HAM and Item-Rate: What the Delivery Model Actually Changes

The choice between an item-rate contract, a lump-sum EPC contract and the Hybrid Annuity Model is usually discussed as a financing decision. It is not…

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A structural steel frame standing against open sky
Insight

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Single-Point Responsibility and What It Costs

Turnkey procurement is sold as one throat to choke: hand design, investigation and construction to a single contractor for a lump sum, and stop owning…

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Stacked documents in coloured covers
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Evaluating Bids: A Method That Survives Scrutiny

A bid evaluation is judged twice: once when the contract is awarded, and again years later by an auditor, a vigilance enquiry or a writ court reading…

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A figure of Justice and a gavel in a law library
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Liquidated Damages, Performance Security and Termination

Every Indian works contract carries a default toolkit — delay damages, a performance guarantee, retention and a termination procedure — and most of it…

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A truck carrying building materials to site
Advisory

2026-08 · Free with sign-up

Procurement Scheduling: Sequencing Packages Against the Programme

A construction programme is only as good as the procurement schedule that feeds it, yet procurement is usually planned forward from whenever the file…

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