No retender for Athirappilly project Special Correspondent, The Hindu, Wednesday, Jan 02, 2008 http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/02/stories/2008010253480400.htm
Award contract to HCC-BHEL: High Court Court finds lack of transparency in KSEB decision Sees no plausible reason for sudden turnaround Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday quashed the decision of the State government and the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) to retender the contract for the 163-MW Athirappilly hydroelectric power project in the Chalakuddy river in Thrissur district. Justice S. Siri Jagan, allowing a writ petition filed by HCC-BHEL Consortium, directed the KSEB to revise the contract as per a formula suggested by Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Limited, either by itself or by WAPCOs, if necessary, and implement the decision taken on December 30, 2005 to award the contract to the consortium. The court directed the KSEB to take all necessary steps to award the contract to the consortium by February 25, 2008, so that it could begin the project before March 30, 2008. The court observed that there was lack of transparency in the decision of the KSEB and the government in opting for retendering the contract which would result in delay and loss to the KSEB and the government. And the decisions could not be justified. The consortium contended that the decision to retender the contract was arbitrary and unreasonable. A global tender was invited for implementing the project on June 6, 1998 on a turnkey basis. Only four were pre-qualified. And HCC-BHEL Consortium was selected. The government accorded administrative sanction for the implementation of the Athirappilly project on September 2000. A request of the consortium for escalation cost updated up to 2005 was referred to WAPCOS, which fixed the total cost at Rs.570 crore. Meanwhile, the KSEB decided to invite fresh tenders for the project on October 8, 2007. The petitioner sought to restrain the government and the KSEB from going ahead with their decision and pleaded for permission to implement the project. If the work was re-tendered, a substantial loss would be caused to the KSEB and the government. It would delay the implementation of the project as fresh clearance had to be obtained from the Central government, the petitioner contended. The State government and the KSEB took the stand that the tender awarded to the consortium was cancelled because of its failure to comply with the conditions in the tender. Its request for escalation was contrary to the terms of the tender conditions. Besides, there was a failure on the part of the consortium to start the work within the period stipulated. The court said no plausible reason had been given for the sudden turnaround in the stand of the KSEB. The court said that the delay in the execution of work was not attributable to the consortium. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
