MUMBAI: In a major relief for construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T), MMRDA scrapped the tenders for the Thane-Ghodbunder-Bhayandar twin tunnel and elevated road projects, estimated together at ₹14,000 crore. MMRDA counsel—Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Mukul Rohatgi—informed the Supreme Court on Friday that it was scrapping the present tender and would reissue a fresh one. The SC bench of Chief Justice of India Bhushan Gavai and Justice A G Masih said the state authorities must keep in mind that public money is at stake.
The SC on Monday had orally asked MMRDA to consult the state and consider if it was willing to call for rebids and posted the matter to Thursday when it again expressed surprise at the MMRDA finding L&T non-responsive and reiterated that it was selected by the Centre to construct the Central Vista project. The CJI also orally remarked that public money is being spent to fund these projects and highlighted the need to ensure high safety standards by referring to the 2023 collapse of an under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand where 41 persons were trapped for over two weeks.
L&T petitioned the SC after the Bombay HC vacation bench of Justices Kamal Khata and Arif Doctor on May 20 declined to stay the opening of price bids in the second-longest infra road project after Atal Setu. The L&T contention, argued by senior counsel A M Singhvi and Janak Dwarkadas as well as S U Kamdar before the HC, was that MMRDA didn’t inform it of the result of the preceding technical bids round before proceeding with the final financial bids and sought that they be allowed to at least be present in the financial round.
"The very name of the bidder (L&T)…" the CJI said, noting the firm was selected by the Centre to construct the Central Vista project when L&T’s challenge came up earlier this week. The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to a request from Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) counsel to defer the hearing in the special leave petition filed by L&T to Friday, saying they were in communication with the authority’s top brass about the bids for Thane’s twin-tunnel and elevated road project. Mehta said the public body executing the project had “substantial grounds’’ to hold L&T’s technical bids to be non-responsive, resulting in it not reaching the final price bids’ round.
L&T petitioned the SC against a Bombay high court vacation bench order which dismissed its plea seeking a stay on the opening of financial bids since it said MMRDA flouted PWD and CVC guidelines in not intimating it of the results of the preceding technical round. In court before the HC vacation bench, Rohatgi said not only L&T but two others in the project and one other in the other were held non-responsive (disqualified technically) and MMRDA was not mandated to communicate the result or reasons till the final bidder was selected, to ensure there is no delay in the large public interest infrastructure project.
The SC on Monday asked MMRDA to consult the Maharashtra govt if it could call for a retender in the Rs 14,000 crore project for the Thane-Ghodbunder-Bhayandar twin tunnel and elevated road project, together stretching around 15-16 km, making it the second-longest such project after the 21 km Atal Setu (which L&T, as the largest engineering company, helped build). L&T argued that PWD guidelines of the state required bidders to be informed of the technical rounds as well. MMRDA said it was not mandatory.
The HC cited the public importance of the project, the delay that may ensue, and SC orders in the bullet train project, to not stay the opening of the price bids but asked MMRDA to keep all price bids sealed for two weeks to enable L&T to go in appeal. The HC said the company suppressed certain bid clauses when it came to court and stated the petitioner must come to court with full disclosure. Senior counsel Janak Dwarkadas for L&T before the HC also argued that CVC guidelines on transparency and accountability were being flouted by MMRDA.
However, the HC found “much merit” in the submission of senior counsel A M Singhvi for L&T that the tender terms were contrary to the PWD and CVC guidelines. The HC observed the tender conditions to be prima facie “opaque and such that could give rise to the tendering authority acting in an arbitrary and non-transparent manner.” But it noted that L&T accepted the terms and participated without challenging them as they should have.
L&T rushed to the SC against the HC order and on Friday its ground legal head Hemant Kumar, after the success before the apex court, expressed gratitude to his battery of senior legal counsel. The company even earlier went to HC against the tender arguing the conditions were meant to make it significantly difficult to bid. Last October, after L&T moved the HC, MMRDA on Tuesday extended the tender deadline by 60 days for its two mega projects—the twin-tunnel and elevated road from Thane Ghodbunder to Bhayandar following a petition by Larsen & Toubro Ltd challenging the last-minute changes in bid conditions shifting the soil-testing technical liability onto bidders. This was the second round of litigation initiated by L&T over the same project
The SC on Monday had orally asked MMRDA to consult the state and consider if it was willing to call for rebids and posted the matter to Thursday when it again expressed surprise at the MMRDA finding L&T non-responsive and reiterated that it was selected by the Centre to construct the Central Vista project. The CJI also orally remarked that public money is being spent to fund these projects and highlighted the need to ensure high safety standards by referring to the 2023 collapse of an under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand where 41 persons were trapped for over two weeks.
L&T petitioned the SC after the Bombay HC vacation bench of Justices Kamal Khata and Arif Doctor on May 20 declined to stay the opening of price bids in the second-longest infra road project after Atal Setu. The L&T contention, argued by senior counsel A M Singhvi and Janak Dwarkadas as well as S U Kamdar before the HC, was that MMRDA didn’t inform it of the result of the preceding technical bids round before proceeding with the final financial bids and sought that they be allowed to at least be present in the financial round.
"The very name of the bidder (L&T)…" the CJI said, noting the firm was selected by the Centre to construct the Central Vista project when L&T’s challenge came up earlier this week. The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to a request from Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) counsel to defer the hearing in the special leave petition filed by L&T to Friday, saying they were in communication with the authority’s top brass about the bids for Thane’s twin-tunnel and elevated road project. Mehta said the public body executing the project had “substantial grounds’’ to hold L&T’s technical bids to be non-responsive, resulting in it not reaching the final price bids’ round.
L&T petitioned the SC against a Bombay high court vacation bench order which dismissed its plea seeking a stay on the opening of financial bids since it said MMRDA flouted PWD and CVC guidelines in not intimating it of the results of the preceding technical round. In court before the HC vacation bench, Rohatgi said not only L&T but two others in the project and one other in the other were held non-responsive (disqualified technically) and MMRDA was not mandated to communicate the result or reasons till the final bidder was selected, to ensure there is no delay in the large public interest infrastructure project.
The SC on Monday asked MMRDA to consult the Maharashtra govt if it could call for a retender in the Rs 14,000 crore project for the Thane-Ghodbunder-Bhayandar twin tunnel and elevated road project, together stretching around 15-16 km, making it the second-longest such project after the 21 km Atal Setu (which L&T, as the largest engineering company, helped build). L&T argued that PWD guidelines of the state required bidders to be informed of the technical rounds as well. MMRDA said it was not mandatory.
The HC cited the public importance of the project, the delay that may ensue, and SC orders in the bullet train project, to not stay the opening of the price bids but asked MMRDA to keep all price bids sealed for two weeks to enable L&T to go in appeal. The HC said the company suppressed certain bid clauses when it came to court and stated the petitioner must come to court with full disclosure. Senior counsel Janak Dwarkadas for L&T before the HC also argued that CVC guidelines on transparency and accountability were being flouted by MMRDA.
However, the HC found “much merit” in the submission of senior counsel A M Singhvi for L&T that the tender terms were contrary to the PWD and CVC guidelines. The HC observed the tender conditions to be prima facie “opaque and such that could give rise to the tendering authority acting in an arbitrary and non-transparent manner.” But it noted that L&T accepted the terms and participated without challenging them as they should have.
L&T rushed to the SC against the HC order and on Friday its ground legal head Hemant Kumar, after the success before the apex court, expressed gratitude to his battery of senior legal counsel. The company even earlier went to HC against the tender arguing the conditions were meant to make it significantly difficult to bid. Last October, after L&T moved the HC, MMRDA on Tuesday extended the tender deadline by 60 days for its two mega projects—the twin-tunnel and elevated road from Thane Ghodbunder to Bhayandar following a petition by Larsen & Toubro Ltd challenging the last-minute changes in bid conditions shifting the soil-testing technical liability onto bidders. This was the second round of litigation initiated by L&T over the same project
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