HC directs TANGEDCO to produce order on scrapping tender

The Madras High Court today directed Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TNGEDCO) to produce the notification/order regarding scrapping of a tender in respect of a power project.
On a petition filed by Central Southern China Electric Power Design Institute (CSEPDI) seeking a direction to TANGEDCO to furnish them the order/proceedings regarding rejecting all the bids and scrapping the tender for the 2660 MW Udangudi Supercritical Thermal Power Project in Tuthukodi district, Justice T S Sivagnam directed the Corporation to submit a copy of the order scrapping the bids called for the project.
The petitioners contended that unlike regular tenders floated as EPC tenders (Engineering, Procurement and Construction), TANGEDCO floated tender subject to a debt-cum-EPC basis putting the onus of arranging the lowest interest rate debt for the Corportion on the bidders.

The petitioner submitted that they submitted the lowest bid on July 19, 2013 quoting Rs 8025.34 crores.
The bids were opened on October 18, 2014 in the presence of the petitioner and BHEL which offered a loan amount of 75 per cent of the total amout with an interest rate of 12.25 per cent.
When the petitioner was waiting to receive intimation on the results of the bid, they learnt from the newspapers that the bids for were scraped for "technical deficiencies."
However, till date no communication was received from TANGEDCO. The Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Rules 2000, have not been complied with and no information regarding the tenders was available in the website of the TANGEDCO, the petitioner argued.

The petitioner prayed for a direction to produce all the relevant documents with regard to the scrapping of bids to the power project.