The Kerala Government has officially rejected the single bid from the Welspun Infratech-led consortium for the Vizhinjam port and container terminal project.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy announced the decision to newspersons here after a meeting of the State cabinet.
PANEL VIEW
An empowered committee chaired by the Chief Secretary had earlier submitted to the Cabinet a recommendation to this effect.
The Welspun consortium emerged as the sole bidder after the Centre refused to give security clearance to rival contender, Adani Ports.
But the consortium had proceeded to seek a grant component of Rs 479 crore from the State Government, scaled down later to Rs 399.5 crore.
The empowered committee was of the view that this was not in the best interests of the project and hence not acceptable.
Earlier, the Chief Minister had said that the State Government was finding it difficult to proceed with the single bid for a project of Vizhinjam’s scale.
CVC GUIDELINES
Legal and procedural issues abounded, he told a meeting of the youth wing of the Congress party here, quoting guidelines of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
Award of contracts on single tender is to be resorted to only under exceptional circumstances, these guidelines said.
An industry expert was, however, of the view that the CVC ‘does not say that single bid can never be accepted.’
“A single bid can be accepted with detailed justification,” he said, citing directives issued by courts in a few cases. vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in