SC notice to Indo-Italian JV over NTPC's plea

The Supreme Court today issued notices to Italian boiler manufacturer Ansaldo Caldaie Boilers and its Indian partner Gammon India over an appeal filed by NTPC seeking to restrict the duo from participation in a Rs 15,000 crore tender for super-critical power equipment.

NTPC's plea came in the wake of a Delhi High Court verdict that permitted the Ansaldo-Gammon consortium to participate in the bidding process for the supply tender.

While issuing notices and asking the parties to file their replies, a bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph remarked that the matter required proper hearing and accordingly, it will pass orders only after hearing all the parties concerned.

Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, appearing for NTPC, submitted to the court that Italian boiler manufacturer Ansaldo Caldaie Boilers had formed a joint venture with Gammon India Ltd to bid for the supply of Rs 15,000 crore worth of super-critical power equipment to NTPC.

However, NTPC had rejected the bid as the Italian firm does not have the capacity to design the super-critical boiler and did not fulfill the minimum criteria stipulated in the techno-commercial tender, said Subramanium.

Appearing for the Italian firm, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, however, opposed the NTPC argument and said the firm had all the required experience and fulfilled all the required parameters to participate in the bidding process.

The Solicitor General, however, assured the court that NTPC would maintain status quo on the tendering process till the matter was resolved.

NTPC moved the apex court after the Delhi High Court allowed ACB to bid against the tender for providing super-critical power equipment to the power giant.

NTPC had invited manufacturers to bid for supplying a package that includes 11 super-critical boilers and an equal number of super-critical turbines of 660-Mw capacity each.

Besides ACB, there are four bidders for the tender, including Bhel, a consortium of L&T Power and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and a JV between BGR and Hitachi Power Europe GmbH.

Chennai-based ACB India is a JV between Ansaldo Caldaie, an Italian boiler manufacturer and Gammon India, which holds a 73.4% stake.