After SC order, MMRDA seeks price bids from L&T on projects
Mumbai: Nearly two weeks after MMRDA informed Supreme Court that it had "in public interest" scrapped its tenders for the Thane-Ghodbunder-Bhayander twin tunnel and elevated road projects—collectively estimated at Rs 14,000 crore—the planning authority has sought detailed financial estimates from infrastructure giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T).
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The projects include an underground road tunnel from Gaimukh to Fountain Hotel Junction on Ghodbunder Road and an elevated road from Fountain Hotel Junction to Bhayander. Sources said MMRDA sent a letter on June 10 asking L&T to submit detailed financial estimates/price bids, rate analysis and justification and related documents in seven working days "to ensure completeness of the bid records" and "further transparency and public interest".
The tender process for the projects had landed in court after MMRDA disqualified L&T from the technical bids round by declaring it non-responsive, saying it had failed to submit a mandatory affidavit. The affidavit required bidders to declare that none of their bridges had collapsed within two years of completion. Megha Engineering and Infrastructure, a prominent purchaser of electoral bonds prior to being scrapped by the apex court, was declared the successful bidder.
L&T then moved Bombay HC, alleging lack of clarity over the rejection and the decision not to open its financial bids. HC granted a temporary stay on the opening of price bids on May 13 but dismissed L&T's petitions on May 20, observing "material suppression" by the company. The court upheld MMRDA's tendering process. L&T approached SC, which expressed surprise that technical bids of a firm that had built Central Vista and Atal Setu had been rejected.
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The company disclosed during the proceedings that its quoted prices were significantly lower—Rs 6,498 crore for the tunnel and Rs 5,554 crore for the elevated road. SC was informed that the difference was over Rs 3,100 crore between the lowest bidder and L&T. The bench asked MMRDA how L&T could be technically disqualified from the projects in that case and directed it to check with the state govt if it was willing to re-tender the projects.
SC disposed of L&T's petition after MMRDA agreed to re-tender the projects.
MMRDA has since maintained that both SC and HC had upheld its submission, but that in deference to the courts and in line with its institutional commitment to transparency, it was decided that both tenders would be scrapped and a fresh tender process would be initiated. In its June 10 letter, it said it had decided to voluntarily scrap the tenders and revise cost estimates in the "spirit of transparency and larger public interest.
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