The Competition Commission of India (CII) has sought a meeting with the Planning Commission to study whether the new model concession agreement, which has formed the basis for the government to award, projects within the public-private partnership (PPP) model, leads to cartelisation.

In simple terms, the fear is that the new method of short-listing new companies could lead to only a few players dominating most of the projects being awarded across the country.

A senior Planning Commission official confirmed that the CCI has sought a meeting with them for a discussion of the new selection criteria for the PPP projects.

The move assumes significance as already infrastructure companies undertaking highway projects have challenged the new norms by the Planning Commission in the Delhi High Court saying the new selection criteria favours big corporate players and, in the long run, would lead to cartelisation among them.

According to companies, the new method, which gives weight to international and domestic experience, as well as high networth of a company, is tilting the award of contracts to just five to six players who will have a monopoly of all construction projects of the state.

According to the CCI, any agreement which causes or is likely to cause adverse effect on competition can come under its focus. In such cases, the commission can direct any enterprise, person or association to discontinue with the anti-competitive practices.

But the CCI is yet to study the matter. When asked whether the competition panel would give its observation on the new model guidelines, a senior CCI official said: "Till now we have not studied the issue."

The new model selection criteria had become a contentious issue between infrastructure companies and the Planning Commission in recent times. The builders argue that the new norms would lead to a lack of a level-playing field and transparency in the competitive bidding process.