HP to invite fresh bids for Jangi project

To cancel contract awarded to Barkel Corp.

The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to invite fresh bids for the controversial 960-Mw Jangi-Thopan-Powari hydroelectric project, barely a couple of weeks after the HC here intervened in the matter.

The state cabinet which met here late Thursday decided to cancel the mega project which had been alloted to the Netharlands-based Brakel Corporation as according to the HC judgement, the company had bid for the project in a fraudulent manner. The government has also decided to issue a show cause notice to Brakel with regard to the delay and lapses in the project.

“The delay in the implementation of the project has caused huge loss to the state, so the state government has decided to issue a show-cause notice to Brakel,” said state chief secretary Asha Swaroop.

“We have also decided not to file an appeal in the SC against the recent HC verdict on the matter and invited fresh bids instead,” she said.

“The Rs 193-crore upfront money deposited by Brakel will not be returned to the company but adjusted against the losses due to the delay in the project,” Swaroop said.

There are indications though that Brakel could still move the apex court in the matter, even as the government has decided to invite fresh bids for the project.

The HC earlier this month directed the government to take a fresh decision in the matter in four weeks by inviting fresh tenders or acting on the old bids.

Reliance Industries had challenged the decision of the state government saying that Brakel wasn’t technically and financially competent to build this mega project, and had also misled the government by producing false documents.

The Jangi-Thopan-Powari is a twin hydroelectric project to be built on the Sutlej in the tribal district of Kinnaur.