Madras HC orders a stay opening tender for Rs 8,000-cr thermal power project

Order comes in the back of a petition filed by a Indo-Chinese consortium

The Madras high court today ordered an interim stay on opening the tenders for the Rs 8,000-crore Udangudi super critical thermal power project in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu.

The project will not be taken forward until the main case, filed by an Indo-Chinese consortium, is disposed of by the high court.

The order was passed by Justice M Sathyanarayanan. The matter relates to a second tender floated for the project, after scrapping the first tender process, in which the Indo-Chinese consortium — CSEPDI-Trishe Consortium — emerged as the lowest bidder.

“...there shall be an order of ad-interim injunction restraining the respondents, their servants, agents or anybody claiming under them from proceeding further with the tender notification published in the State Tender Bulletin dated 26.03.2015, in respect of Udangudi Super Critical Thermal Power Project till the disposal of the writ petition,” the high court order stated.

The project consortium sought a direction to close/lodge the tender for the 2x660-Mw Udangudi supercritical thermal power project published in the state bulletin on March 26 and further sought to quash it.

The Chinese firm outbid public sector BHEL by about Rs 137 crore, with cumulative savings amounting to Rs 1,400 crore, according to the original petition.

Instead of awarding the tender to the consortium, state utility Tangedco had scrapped the tender process in March 2015 stating the bids suffered from certain “technical deficiencies”, it alleged.

Following which the consortium moved the court. Meanwhile, Tangedco floated a second tender for the same Udangudi project, in which BHEL alone participated, against which the consortium  filed a miscellaneous petition seeking to stop Tangedco and the state authorities from going ahead with the process.

Today’s court order came on this petition.