The Larsen and Toubro Restricted (L&T) has approached Bombay Excessive Courtroom difficult bidding means of MMRDA pertaining to 2 initiatives price Rs 16, 577 crore.
One undertaking hyperlinks Thane and Mira Bhayander by a tunnel from Gaimukh to Fountain Lodge junction at Shilphata, and the opposite is an elevated creek highway bridge connecting Bhayander to Ghodbunder Highway in Thane.
The attorneys of L&T filed the plea Monday morning in search of pressing aid. The plea claimed that the Discover Inviting Tender (NIT) of Mumbai Metropolitan Area Improvement Authority (MMRDA) didn’t include the geotechnical knowledge for the bridge and the bidders had been burdened to gather the stated knowledge by an modification, merely two days earlier than the deadline to submit the tender on October 3, which was later prolonged to October 7.
The agency stated that it is among the competent prime infrastructure firms on this planet with intentional contracts and gathering such knowledge would require at the least 30 days. It argued that the situation for submission of the bid by October 7 with such a knowledge was ex facie arbitrary and achieved in haste, subsequently, the bids be thought-about with out the supply of such particulars.
After the bench led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya stated that it’s going to hear the pleas on Tuesday (October 8), Advocate Basic Birendra Saraf for MMRDA assured the HC by an announcement that the bids is not going to be opened until 4: 30 pm on October 8.
Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Zal Andhyarujina representing L&T argued earlier than a bench of CJ Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar that “it was a case of sudden change in MMRDA’s strategy, with the tearing hurry to minimize competitors or exclude sure bidders from the method.”
Singhvi added the involved bridge can be second largest after the current Mumbai Trans Harbour Hyperlink (MTHL) bridge, which can be referred to as as Atal Setu and when the tender course of started in July, this 12 months, there was completely no hurry within the minds of the tendering authorities.
The agency submitted that no geotechnical knowledge together with soil testing for the bridge was contained in NIT issued on September 13, after which on September 23, the petitioner wrote to MMRDA in search of the identical. Nonetheless, Singhvi argued, the stated knowledge was not offered, and subsequently L&T sought pressing aid in mild of the final date for submission of tender being revised to October 7.
Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, representing L&T in one other petition difficult the tender course of pertaining to the bid for the tunnel, stated that whereas it had submitted the bid, it was beneath protest. He stated that for a undertaking of huge magnitude, it could be tough to assemble geotechnical knowledge in a brief span and that bids needs to be accepted with out such particulars.
CJ Upadhyaya orally remarked that such a situation of offering the information can be topic to the result of the petition.
Saraf submitted that the discover of petition was given to the authorities on Sunday evening and subsequently he required time to take directions from authorities to answer the plea. The HC will hear the plea on Tuesday.
