A consortium, which participated in a tender for setting up the 2X660 MW Ennore SEZ Supercritical Thermal Power Project at Ash Dyke of the North Chennai Thermal Power Station, has sought a direction from the Madras High Court to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (Tangedco) to take action on its representations against BHEL’s delayed execution of all pending power projects in the State. The State-owned company had also participated in the tender.
The petitioner, CSEPDI-Trishe Consortium comprises Trishe Energy Infrastructure Services Pvt. Ltd. and Central Southern China Electric Power Design Institute, a power engineering, survey and design and general engineering contracting company.
The institute, lead partner of the consortium, was one of the largest enterprises for electric power survey and design and general engineering contracting in China.
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The consortium, represented by its Managing Director, Sanjay K. Pillai, said it participated in the tender. Tangedco should have awarded the contract to one of the two shortlisted bidders, viz., BHEL or the petitioner. The consortium had quoted Rs. 9,207 crore.
As per the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, the tendering authority should apply its mind to the past performance of the tenderer, assess their performance objectively and take all relevant criteria into consideration. Based on the material, if it was satisfied that the bidder had failed to perform to the optimum level, it should proceed to disqualify that bidder.
The petitioner said there was a plenty of material in the public domain, including Tangedco’s own assertions on the poor performance of BHEL. Tangedco itself, in a counter affidavit before the court in a separate case, had blamed the public sector undertaking for the delayed execution of all pending power projects in the State and the resultant power shortage.
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In February 2012, the Tamil Nadu government announced the decision to scrap the joint venture between Tangedco and BHEL for the Udangudi project.
From the information in Tangedco’s website, it would appear that the generation loss because of the delayed projects by BHEL in the State was approximately Rs.27,000 crore.
The lead partner of the consortium had implemented projects always on schedule in India and 25 other countries.
The petitioner had written letters in June and July this year bringing to Tangedco’s notice the poor track record of the State-owned enterprise. However, till date, no attention was paid to the letters. Tangedco, being a public authority, owed a duty to look into the grave concerns raised by the petitioner in its representations. Till date, the tender had not been finalised. Hence, the present petition for a direction to Tangedco to consider the representations and take necessary action, particularly in accordance with the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act read with tender documents.
On Tuesday, Justice M. Sathyanarayanan ordered notice of admission returnable by August 14.
He reserved orders on a petition seeking to restrain Tangedco from taking steps to finalise the successful tenderer without considering the representations.