CHENNAI: Vacation Judge MM Sundresh on Friday directed three retired judges to adjudicate a dispute between a private firm and TANGEDCO involving Rs 323 crore.
Judge Sundresh ordered the arbitration in the matter of awarding contract worth Rs 323 crore by Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (RAPDRP) to Navayuga Infotech Private Limited of Chennai for digitalising the entire system of electricity distribution coverage.
The judge was disposing of a writ petition from Navayuga seeking to quash a letter dated March 28 last threatening to terminate the contract awarded for the RAPDRP Project.
The judge said as agreed upon by both sides, the arbitration proceedings are ordered. Retired judge K Chandru will be the arbitrator on the side of TANGEDCO and Justice K Venkataraman will represent the petitioner side. The proceedings will be presided over by Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, a retired Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir. Till then, status quo should be maintained against the March 28 termination letter, the judge added.
Navayuga is a member of a consortium whose lead member is ITI Limited and the consortium was successful in getting award for RAPDRP project, sponsored across India by the Union Ministry of Power. The project was to digitalise the entire system of electricity distribution coverage, billing and recovery. It also involves the collection and processing data through electronic means that would infuse high degree of transparency into the present opaque system enabling all stakeholders, including the small consumer of electricity to ascertain the precise charges that has to be collected
from them.
Right from the commencement of the project, TANGEDCO was not co-operating for reasons best known to it, the petitioner said. Ninety per cent of the work was over and TANGEDCO has to clear the 75 per cent of the total cost of the project. In more than 102 towns across Tamil Nadu, the total system was installed and was in operation. TANGEDCO, with false and fabricated note to the Union government, has already received an amount over Rs 250 crore, misrepresenting that it had already paid the amount to the petitioner.
Having received the amount from the Centre, it ought to have cleared all the bills, the petitioner claimed.
TANGEDCO had committed breach of the contract dated October 30, 2010 for which it has to pay damages. Hence, it stopped its operation from February 21 last. As of now about Rs 140 crore is pending, petitioner concluded.
Going digital
The project was to digitalise electricity distribution coverage, billing and recovery. It also involves collection and processing data through electronic means that would infuse high degree of transparency into the system