The Bombay High Court upheld the tender awarded by the Maharashtra government to Adani Properties Private Limited for the Dharavi slum redevelopment project in Mumbai. file Photo credit: Reuters
The Bombay High Court on Friday (December 20, 2024) upheld the tender awarded by the Maharashtra government to Adani Properties Pvt Ltd for the Dharavi slum redevelopment project in Mumbai.
A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Amit Borkar dismissed the petition filed by UAE-based Seclink Technology Corporation challenging the state government’s decision to award the project to Adani Properties Private Limited.
Read this also What is Dharavi Redevelopment Project?
The bench said the petition lacked “force and effort” and was therefore dismissed.
The Adani Group emerged as the highest bidder for the 259-hectare Dharavi redevelopment project and won it with an offer of ₹ 5,069 crore in the 2022 tender process.
In the first tender issued in 2018, the petitioner company emerged as the highest bidder with its ₹ 7,200 crore offer. However, the government canceled the 2018 tender and issued a new tender in 2022 with additional conditions.
Seclink Technology Corporation first challenged the cancellation of the 2018 tender and later the 2022 tender award to Adani.
“The grounds raised in the petition lack force and effort. The challenge to the government’s act of canceling the earlier tender and issuing a fresh tender fails,” the high court said.
The state government submitted to the High Court that the tender award was transparent and did not show any unfair favor to the highest bidder Adani Group.
The government announced that the 2018 tender was canceled and a new tender was issued in 2022 due to the economic and financial situation affected by the Covid-19 epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
The first tender for the redevelopment project was issued in November 2018. Bids were opened in March 2019 and the petitioner company was found to be the highest bidder.
In the same month, according to the state government, the Indian Railways provided an additional 45 acres of land to the government for the redevelopment project.
The government has claimed that there is no agreement between the government and the petitioner company and it has no legal authority in this matter.
In November 2020, a government proposal was issued to cancel the first tender which was claimed to have materially changed the tender conditions after the “date of bidding”.
The government has claimed that a new bid should be submitted in the new tender and the petitioner can submit a new bid by following the terms and conditions.
published – December 20, 2024 at 12:07 pm IST