NTPC plea against HC order

State-run power firm NTPC today filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the ruling of the Delhi High Court, which allowed the consortium of Ansaldo-Gammon to submit a price bid for the company’s tender for supercritical equipment.

The company had taken the opinion of the Solicitor General before filing a SLP, said people close to the development.

Last week, the Delhi High Court has upheld the plea of the consortium against disqualification for its Rs 19,000 crore 800 Mw bulk supercritical tender.

The consortium had taken NTPC to court after it was disqualified from the bidding in the first stage on the ground that certain parts in the equipment were outsourced. The court said NTPC will allow the consortium, in accordance with the terms of the bid documents, not only to proceed to the next stage, stage-II (price bid), but also permit it to participate in the technical discussions of the tendering process.

The NTPC had placed orders for 11 boilers, nine for its own projects and two for the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). According to the tender conditions, the lowest bidder for boilers will be given an order for six units. If BHEL is not the lowest bidder, the government will award it the order for the remaining five units if it agrees to match the lowest bid. The option will be given to others, in case BHEL does not match the bid, in the order of bid ranking.

Three other consortia — BHEL-Alstom, L&T-Mitsubishi Heavy Industry and BGR-Hitachi — have already submitted their price bids to NTPC for the tender. The bids were to open on January 20. This is the second time NTPC had floated the tender. In the first round, it had disqualified the L&T consortium on technical grounds.