CHENNAI: A week after a single judge of the Madras High Court stayed the TN Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) from proceeding with the tender notification for commissioning the super critical thermal power project in Thoothukudi, the power utility on Tuesday moved an appeal before a division bench challenging the interim order.
On July 1, Justice M Sathyanarayanan passed an interim injunction against TANGEDCO following a petition from CSEPDI-Trishe Consortium, one among the bidders for the project.
The matter pertains to the tender floated for the power project, which started in the year 2013. According to the consortium, they had emerged the lowest bidder, outbidding BHEL by nearly Rs 137 crore.
But instead of awarding the tender to the consortium, TANGEDCO and other authorities decided to scrap the entire tender process by an order dated March 26, 2015 on the grounds that there were technical deficiencies in the bids submitted by the consortium and BHEL, the consortium alleged, and approached the court.
Subsequently, TANGEDCO floated a second tender for the project, in which BHEL alone participated. The consortium moved an interim petition against the move and secured an injunction against TANGEDCO.
Challenging the order, TANGEDCO moved an appeal seeking to set aside the order of the single judge.
Through its petition, TANGEDCO reiterated its stand that the bids were initially cancelled as they suffered from serious defects and violated the terms of the tender documents. Hence, neither of the bidders could be awarded the contract. The entire actions were done under the powers confined to the corporation by various Acts, TANGEDCO added.
Moreover, the validity of bids submitted by the participants has expired on March 31 and therefore the question of accepting the consortium does not arise at this point of time, TANGEDCO contended.