Rate analysis is the discipline of working out what one unit of finished work actually costs to produce — one cubic metre of concrete, one square metre of plaster, one metric tonne of reinforcement. Every rate in a Bill of Quantities is (or should be) backed by a rate analysis. In Indian public works this is anchored to a published Schedule of Rates.
SOR, DSR, MoRTH — what governs what
- CPWD DSR (Delhi Schedule of Rates) — the reference schedule for building works, published by the Central Public Works Department with basic rates for materials and labour and standard analyses per item.
- MoRTH SOR — the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways Standard Data Book and Schedule of Rates for roads, highways and bridge works.
- State PWD SORs — most states publish their own schedule, often derived from CPWD/MoRTH with local basic rates.
These schedules give you two things: the basic rates of inputs (a bag of cement, a day of mason's labour, an hour of an excavator) and the standard analysis (how much of each input a unit of work consumes). Multiply and sum, and you have the rate.
The five components of a rate
Unit rate = (Σ material cost + Σ labour cost + Σ machinery cost + carriage) × (1 + overheads% + profit%). The SOR gives you the coefficients; your local basic rates and lead distances give you the numbers.
Lead and lift — the details that move the rate
For earthwork, aggregates and similar bulk materials, carriage is not trivial. Lead is charged in distance slabs (initial lead plus additional per-km rates), and lift adds a component for raising material through height. Two identical items at two sites with different quarry distances have genuinely different rates — this is why blindly copying a rate from another project is dangerous.
SOR rate vs market rate
The SOR basic rates lag the market. On tender, contractors compare the SOR-derived rate against current market rates for cement, steel, bitumen and diesel — which move constantly — and price accordingly. A good estimate keeps the SOR analysis as the auditable base and overlays a market view for the volatile inputs.
Deriving a rate for non-SOR items (star rates)
Not every item on a real project exists in the schedule. New items, or items executed under a variation, need a derived rate — often called a star rate or extra item rate. You build it the same way (a fresh rate analysis from first principles or the nearest analogous SOR item), document the basis, and get it agreed by the Engineer before you execute and bill. Undocumented extra-item rates are a frequent source of disputes.
InCore's BOQ builder imports CPWD / SOR schedules and lets you attach a DSR-style rate-analysis build-up to each item — material, labour, machinery, lead & lift, overheads and profit. Extra (star-rate) items are derived and certified in the same chain as the rest of the bill, so the basis is always on record.