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HC cancels TN’s tender for Ennore power project |
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CHENNAI : Just hours ahead of the inauguration of Tamil Nadu's showpiece event -- Global Investors Meet (GIM) -- Madras high court cancelled the Rs 9,207-core 1,320MW Ennore supercritical thermal power plant project awarded to BHEL by the Tamil Nadu General and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco).
A division bench of Justice R Sudhakar and Justice KBK Vasuki, allowing a writ appeal filed by a consortium -- Trishe Energy Infrastructure Services and Central Southern China Electric Power Design Institute - on Monday, remitted the matter back to Tangedco to reconsider the bids of BHEL and the consortium strictly in accordance with law and Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders, 1998.
The consortium and BHEL were the key bidders to bag contract for the Rs 9,207-crore project to build two power plants of 660MW each at Ennore SEZ.
The consortium moved the high court assailing a Tangedco communication dated September 27, 2014 awarding the over 9,600-crore project to BHEL, and saying BHEL should have been disqualified from the bidding process, as it had delayed earlier power projects involving a cumulative value Rs 27,000 crore and 7,300MW in Tamil Nadu.
"The public sector undertaking should have been disqualified from bidding for the new project in view of its abysmal past performance. As per Clause 29.0 of Commercial and General Conditions of Contract and provisions of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, 1998, authorities must assess the past performance of a bidder and disqualify it if it was not satisfactory," the consortium had said.
On April 7, 2015, however, a single judge dismissed the writ petition rejecting all the four grounds of challenge — procedural impropriety, public interest, wrong evaluation of the price bid and breach of confidentiality — mounted by the consortium.
The single judge had rejected arguments concerning financial benefits of choosing the Indo-Chinese consortium, saying: "The jurisdiction of this court to test the correctness of the decision to award tender to a party, does not extend to the arithmetic and financial jugglery." As for the BHEL's notoriety for delays, he had said: "I do not think that delay by itself could have actually tilted the balance."
He had also said that since its inception in 1964, BHEL had built 910 power plants with installed capacity of 1.26 lakh MW of power, out of the total production of 2,18,000 MW in the country. More than 50% of the total installed capacity of power generation in the country, was established by BHEL, he said.
BHEL has already done 18 supercritical projects, he said, adding, "in contrast, the Consortium had done only three projects. Tangedco appears to have decided not to choose the unknown angel," he had said.
In the present appeal against the single judge's order, the consortium said if the lower interest rate offered by the Indo-Chinese consortium is taken into account, it will mean a savings of more than Rs 1,300 crore for the exchequer. Alleging perversity and unreasonableness in evaluation of the financial bid submitted by the consortium, the appeal said Rs 294.169 crore was added to its financial bid by TANGEDCO through erroneous calculation, leaving the consortium second-lowest bidder and BHEL as the lowest bidder.
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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