Delhi High Court notice to Centre, DMRC on Gammon plea against blacklisting

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has sought response of the Centre and the DMRC on a plea of civil engineering construction company Gammon India Ltd, which has challenged the Metro's decision to bar it for six months from taking part in any of the tenders.

A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul issued notice to the Ministry of Urban Development and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) seeking their replies on Gammon's plea that it has been blacklisted without being issued a show cause notice.

The court has listed the matter for further hearing on February 25.

Gammon in its plea has contended that it was barred from participating in the recent metro tender of building eight stations in the capital at a cost of Rs 665 crore and sought that the contract for the same be not awarded.

DMRC, defended its decision, saying Gammon's work with respect to the Chennai Metro Rail was found to be technically non-compliant and in the past too the company has been penalised for its unsatisfactory work.

DMRC also said that in 2010 Gammon was blacklisted for two years after five labourers had died during construction of the Noida metro line.

It also said that the latest tender pertaining to the eight stations has been alloted to a joint venture of Tata.