MMRDA to give disqualified bidder another chance

“As per the orders of the Bombay High Court,the MMRDA has submitted a technical report to the consortium and that is to be treated as a showcause notice. After studying the consortium’s submissions,the MMRDA Commissioner will take a decision on whether to reverse the earlier decision and include the consortium in the bidding process,” said Yogita Paralkar,joint project director,legal cell,MMRDA.

“As such,the MMRDA was not required to give a showcause notice before dropping the consortium at the pre-qualification stage. A showcause notice would have been necessary only at the next stage of bidding,the request for proposals,” she added.

Last year,the MMRDA revived the 22-km MTHL project,which has been talked about for more than three decades now,and started a fresh tendering process by inviting pre-qualification bids to which six consortia responded. This is the third attempt at bidding for the project. After scrutinising the six proposals,the MMRDA,last month,decided to drop one consortium for the next stage of financial bidding without giving a showcause notice to the disqualified party. Subsequently,IL&FS Transportation Networks filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court on behalf of the consortium challenging the MMRDA’s decision.

In an order dated June 19,the court disposed of the petition,saying,“The petitioner’s exclusion setting out the names of shortlisted bidders eligible to participate in the request for proposal stage of the tender is not to be treated as final and the same shall be subject to hearing and decision of the respondent.”

The court has ordered the MMRDA to pass a “reasoned decision” on whether the consortium qualifies for participation in the financial bidding stage within seven days once the hearing granted to the petitioner is concluded. If the decision is adverse to the petitioner,the court has ordered the MMRDA to not act upon it for a week in order to give the consortium concerned a chance to challenge it.