High Court allows Chinese consortium plea against BHEL's tender for power project in Tamil Nadu

MADURAI: The Madras High Court today allowed an appeal by a Chinese consortium against evaluation of tenders for Ennore super critical thermal power project by Tamil Nadu government-owned power utility TANGEDCO and subsequent award of the contract to public sector BHEL.

The court set aside the April 7 order of a single judge dismissing the consortium's petition and quashed the tender submitted by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd for the 2x660-Mw Ennore SEZ supercritical thermal power project, which was accepted by TANGEDCO (Tamilnadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd).

A bench, comprising Justices R.Sudhakar and K.B.K.Vasuki, directed TANGEDCO to revalidate the tender floated by the CSEPDI-TRISHE consortium and consider accepting it.

It said the difference between the tender quoted by BHEL and the consortium was about Rs 1,300 crore and the amount could be used for people's welfare.

The matter was heard by the bench in the principal seat in Chennai and the order delivered here.

Justice V. Ramasubramanian had in his order dismissed the petition filed by CSEPDI-TRISHE (Trishe Energy Infrastructure Services and China-based Central Southern China Electric Power Design Institute) which had alleged procedural impropriety and failure by TANGEDCO to comply with the provisions of Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act,1998.

Tangedco had evaluated the bid price of the BHEL at Rs 7,840.87 crore and the bid price of the petitioner at Rs 9207.258 crore.