Maharashtra PWD contractor registration is now done online on the department’s e-ROC portal, and since a Government Resolution (GR) of 16 August 2017 it covers only works up to Rs 1.50 crore. Above that line PWD no longer registers contractors at all. The civil classes still offered run from Class IV (up to Rs 150 lakh) down to Class IX, with registration fees from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000 plus a Rs 1,000 KYC fee. The base rule book is still the GR of 20 April 1998, and a first registration under it lasts three years.

Rs 1.50 crore is the number to remember. Below it, you cannot bid for a Public Works Department job in Maharashtra unless you are on the PWD register. Above it, there is no register, and the tender’s own criteria decide who can bid.

What follows is read from the department’s own GRs and the e-ROC portal as it stood in October 2026. One point first. The Zilla Parishad contractor registration run by the Rural Development Department is a different list under different rules, and so is the Water Resources enlistment covered in our piece on irrigation department contractor registration.

What changed in 2017: registration only up to Rs 1.50 crore

A GR of 12 April 2017 told divisions to state in open tender notices that bidders need not be registered with PWD, and a corrigendum of 29 June 2017 made registration compulsory only for works up to Rs 1.50 crore. The GR of 16 August 2017 (CAT-1096/CR-172/Bldg-2) followed through and ended registration above that line. Class 3, 2, 1C, 1B and 1A registration stopped after 21 August 2017; existing certificates ran only to expiry.

The August GR also planned to merge everything below Rs 1.50 crore into one class. A corrigendum of 21 September 2017 dropped that idea: registration for works up to Rs 1.50 crore continues as before, with its existing classes. That is why the e-ROC portal today offers civil Classes IV to IX and nothing above.

Enlistment elsewhere still helps: the registering officer is told to consider your registration with bodies such as Railways, MES or CPWD. The CPWD contractor enlistment rules are a separate central scheme with their own classes.

Maharashtra PWD contractor registration classes, limits and fees

No single current document lists every limit, so each figure below comes from the GR that set it. Fees are from the e-ROC fee page; the approving officer is from the Right to Public Services notification of 11 April 2025.

Class Tendering limit Limit set by Registration fee (Rs) Approved by
IV Rs 150 lakh 1998 rules; restated in 2018 and 2023 GRs 20,000 Chief Engineer
IV-A Rs 90 lakh 1998 rules; restated in 2023 GR 15,000 Chief Engineer
V Rs 50 lakh 1998 rules 10,000 Superintending Engineer
V-A Not stated in the GRs we read – 7,500 Superintending Engineer
VI Rs 15 lakh 1998 rules 5,000 Superintending Engineer
VII Rs 10 lakh GR of 31 March 2005 3,000 Executive Engineer
VIII Rs 5 lakh GR of 31 March 2005 2,000 Executive Engineer
IX Rs 3 lakh GR of 31 March 2005 2,000 Executive Engineer

On top of the registration fee, every class pays a Rs 1,000 KYC fee at the start, and a balance portal fee after approval: Rs 2,000 for Classes IV and IV-A, Rs 1,000 for the rest. Since 3 June 2015 all of it is collected online; the portal accepts no demand drafts. The EMD on each bid is a separate cost.

Who is eligible: solvency, turnover, engineers and machinery

You need a registered office in Maharashtra. The e-ROC application form is still “Annexure A, referred to in rule 3” of the 1998 rule book, which set these financial tests:

Class Minimum solvency (Rs lakh) Average annual turnover (Rs lakh) Works in hand (Rs lakh)
IV 15 60 80
IV-A 9 40 60
V 5 25 30
VI 2 7.5 10
VII 1 1.5 3
VIII 0.50 1 1.5
IX 0.25 0.5 1

These are 1998 figures. We found no later published table, so ask your PWD division which thresholds the committee applies today.

The solvency certificate, from a scheduled bank or the revenue department, is valid for one year. You also upload a CA certificate for the last three years, works certificates for all jobs done or running in that period, GST and professional tax numbers, a PF number, and an affidavit that you are not blacklisted.

Engineers on the payroll

For Classes III and IV, the 1998 rules ask for one civil engineering graduate, one diploma holder and two ITI-trained assistants. Classes IV-A and V need one diploma holder and one ITI-trained assistant. A contractor in Class I to V must employ engineers domiciled in Maharashtra within three months of registration and prove it with a professional tax registration. The current form still asks for that undertaking, on Rs 100 stamp paper.

The machinery test

Under the 1998 rules, Class II and above needed one of three machinery groups. Group I is two trucks, tippers or tractor-trolley units, a concrete mixer, a vibrator and two 5 HP pumps. Group II is an earth mover unit able to move 2,000 cubic metres a day, six tippers or trucks, an excavator or traxcavator and a loader, an 8 to 10 tonne road roller, a vibratory roller, a water tanker, an air compressor and a concrete mixer. Group III is the road set: four trucks or tippers, a water tanker, rollers, asphalt mixers, boilers, a hot mix plant and a paver finisher.

Class II no longer exists, yet the e-ROC form still asks for a machinery group and purchase bills, naming a needle vibrator, a mixer and a 5 HP pump. The documents we read do not say which current classes must meet a group, so check with your division before you buy. If you are building towards Group II, a crawler excavator such as the Tata Hitachi EX 210 Infra or a backhoe loader such as the JCB 3DX is the usual first machine. Ask whether a backhoe counts against the loader line. To see what PWD divisions are tendering now, browse current government construction tenders.

How to apply for Maharashtra PWD contractor registration online

Registration moved online under a GR of 30 June 2014, and the present e-ROC software went live on 17 August 2021. The PWD e-ROC portal has separate civil and electrical sides. The steps on the civil side are:

  1. Register with your email address, which becomes your login ID, and activate it from the mail the system sends.
  2. Fill the KYC form and pay the Rs 1,000 KYC fee. Check the name and address carefully: once paid, KYC cannot be changed, and it prints on your certificate.
  3. Fill Annexure A, upload each document as a PDF of up to 2 MB, and book a date with the district registration scrutiny committee.
  4. Appear before the committee (two Executive Engineers and two accounts officers, under the 2014 GR) with the KYC printout, the originals and two attested copies.
  5. The committee forwards the case online to the approving officer. When it is approved, you get an email asking for the balance portal fee and the registration fee.
  6. Pay online, then download the certificate from your login using “Print Certificate” and your PAN.

The April 2025 notification gives the department 60 days from a complete application.

Validity, renewal and upgradation

A first registration is valid for three years. Apply for renewal three months before expiry, with a solvency certificate not more than a month old, and a renewal runs for up to five years. If you applied in time and the renewal is delayed, the Executive Engineer can extend validity by 180 days, once. Miss the deadline and the rules treat your registration as cancelled.

Upgradation is not normally granted within two years, and needs at least one government or semi-government work worth more than the top limit of your present class. You also file an annual return by 30 April. A contractor who wins no government or semi-government contract for five years after registration or renewal is to be removed from the register.

Unemployed engineers, labour co-operatives and retired engineers

Under the 1998 rules, educated unemployed civil engineers domiciled in Maharashtra can register within 10 years of passing. Since the GR of 31 May 2018 they start in Class IV, up to Rs 150 lakh, with a 10-year registration. The GR of 28 February 2024 lets them take up to Rs 300 lakh of works without open competition over those 10 years. The cap per work is Rs 50 lakh once they have completed a Rs 30 lakh work.

The same 2024 GR raised the labour co-operative society classes to Rs 50 lakh for Class A and Rs 25 lakh for Class B, with up to Rs 300 lakh of work a year. A new society must first complete a Rs 30 lakh work. PWD works up to Rs 50 lakh are shared 33:33:34 between labour societies, unemployed engineers and regular registered contractors. Works up to Rs 10 lakh, including taxes, go through district allocation committees for the first two groups and through newspaper-advertised tenders for contractors. Works above that, up to Rs 50 lakh, are e-tendered.

Retired engineers have a GR of 21 September 2023. Civil engineers who retired below Executive Engineer rank can register up to Rs 90 lakh, and those at Executive Engineer or above up to Rs 150 lakh. On a first registration within five years of retirement they are exempt from the turnover, solvency, machinery and past-work tests. They cannot bid for one year in the division where they served their final year.

Electrical contractor registration with PWD

Electrical contractors have their own side of e-ROC, opened on 10 October 2018. The GR of 12 September 2018 lists six classes and revised their fees:

Electrical class Tendering limit Registration fee (Rs)
A No limit 10,000
B Rs 25 lakh 7,500
B-1 Rs 15 lakh 5,000
C Rs 10 lakh 3,000
D Rs 7.5 lakh 3,000
E Rs 2 lakh 2,000

Add the Rs 1,000 KYC fee and a balance portal fee of Rs 2,000 (A, B, B-1) or Rs 1,000. You also need a valid electrical licence. Unemployed electrical engineers start in Class B for 10 years.

What about the registered contractors list?

The PWD website carries civil and electrical contractor lists in its RTI manual, but the entries we checked show validity dates from 2013 to 2020. To confirm a firm’s status today, ask the division that issued its certificate.

The bottom line

If your jobs sit below Rs 1.50 crore, Maharashtra PWD registration is the ticket, and it is cheap: Rs 4,000 all-in for Class IX, Rs 23,000 for Class IV. The time goes on paperwork: solvency, three years of certified works, engineers for the upper classes, perhaps machinery bills. Read the governing GRs on the portal’s Government Resolutions page, pick the class your works record supports, and diary the renewal three months ahead. When you are registered, find PWD and other state works on the live tenders board.

Class limits, eligibility and validity are taken from the Maharashtra PWD GRs of 20 April 1998, 31 March 2005, 30 June 2014, 16 August and 21 September 2017, 31 May and 12 September 2018, 21 September 2023 and 28 February 2024, and the Right to Public Services notification of 11 April 2025. Fees are as shown on the e-ROC portal in October 2026. Rules, fees and procedures change; confirm current terms with your PWD division or an official source before applying. DesiMachines is not liable for decisions taken on information that may have changed after publication.