Madras HC stays Erode municipality's tender award for Smart City project

The Madras High Court has stayed a tender awarded to build a data centre to manage Erode’s smart city project, said a company whose bid for the work was rejected and then filed an appeal.

Erode Municipal Corporation had called bids to operate and manage the centre, which would bring in data pointers from various sources such police, transport, water, sewerage, and power under one roof, said Trigyn Technologies Limited.

Trigyn said it attended a pre-bid meeting at the Erode Municipal Corporation on November 17, 2020, along with the Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd as part of a consortium.

The company said that it complied with all conditions but it was disqualified for allegedly failing to meet qualification criteria for the technical bid on two counts.

It said the reasons given for its disqualification—one for the signature on its tender and "roles & responsibilities" for the lead and consortium partners—"are rectifiable and minor". 

R Ganapati, chairman of Trigyn, he was not aware of the details in the court order. Kumarpal R Chopra, the company’s lawyer and partner at Mitraa Legal, confirmed the court order.