APTEL rejects GAIL's plea over city gas distribution licence
Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jul 16, 2009, 18:29 IST
Energy tribunal APTEL today dismissed GAIL India's petition which challenged the oil and gas regulator PNGRB's rejection of licence to the PSU to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in Mathura.
The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity rejected GAIL's petition after observing that the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) rightly denied the PSU approval to modify the tender as the terms and conditions clearly stated that "the bidder shall not be allowed to modify the bid after submission."
"Having accepted the bid conditions, it would not be proper for appellant (GAIL) to seek permission to revise its own bid contrary to the condition," the APTEL bench headed by Justice M K Vinayagam said.
The tribunal also observed that the PSU should have challenged the terms and conditions of the tender and not waited for opening of bids and declaration of tender results.
"This clearly shows that GAIL is only aggrieved by its disqualification and not really against the bid condition or rejection of its request for modification of bid," APTEL said.
Earlier, GAIL was the sole bidder for the city gas distribution project. Later, DSM Infratech entered in the process and to counter it GAIL requested PNGRB for a chance to revise its bid, which was denied by the board.
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