HC restrains IRCTC from finalising tender for food plaza at Chennai rly station

The Madras High Court today restrained the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Limited from finallising tenders for setting up Food Plazas at the Central Railway station here.

Justice S Baskaran gave the interim directive on a petition by a disqualified bidder challenging the tender process for granting licences for operation of two stalls in the station.

The Judge said the IRTC can proceed with the tender process but restrained it from passing final orders by accepting any of the tenders till June 12 and posted the matter to that day.

Petitioner K M Mustafa, a railway catering contractor, submitted that the IRCTC had informed him that he was disqualified to bid on the ground that he did not fulfil the eligibility criteria though he had quoted higher amount than others.

He said he had bid for the two stalls quoting Rs 5.27 crore and Rs 2.33 crore.

The petitioner claimed the IRCTC was trying to issue letter of approval to two other bidders who he claimed had quoted lesser amount than him.

Contending that the IRCTC would suffer heavy financial loss if the tenders were alloted to others, he prayed the court to quash the letter sent to him by the corporation disqualifying him and direct it to grant the licence to him.