HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court has upheld the order of a single judge in dismissing a petition filed by the Universal Cables Ltd challenging the tender issued by the AP Transco for supply, laying, testing and commissioning the complete cable system of 220 KV underground copper cable lines passing across the seed capital region at Amaravati in Guntur district.
The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Viijaya Lakshmi was dismissing the appeal filed by the Universal Cables against the single judge order.Last year, the AP Transco had invited global tenders for laying of 220 KV power lines underground with an estimated contract value of Rs 544.24 crores.
In Oct last year, Universal Cables approached the High Court contending that the qualification requirements set out in the tender notification were arbitrary and irrational, and tailor made to suit only the bid of LS Cable India private limited having consortium with the LS Cables systems of Korea. It also raised an objection for inviting single tender for execution of four works works of the above project.
After hearing both sides, the bench said that there was no objection in the eligibility criteria mentioned in the tender issued by AP Transco. Setting aside the tender notification would needlessly delay completion of the work and further result in further increase in cost of its execution. The bench refused to interfere with the order of the single judge and dismissed the appeal by Universal Cables.
Plea for spl status
A division bench of the High Court has directed the registry to list the petition filed seeking directions to the Central government to accord special status to AP with the Union cabinet secy, secretary to ministry of home affairs, and justice and AP chief secy as respondents. The HC refused to grant permission to name secretary generals of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha as respondents.