Supreme Court allows Reliance Energy to bid for Mumbai sea link project
11 Sep 2007
Mumbai: The Supreme Court has set aside a Bombay High Court order and allowed Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Energy Ltd to bid for the Mumbai trans-harbour sea link project, where a consortium led by elder brother Mukesh Ambani is the front-runner.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice S H Kapadia directed Reliance Energy to submit its financial bid for the Mumbai trans-harbour sea link project within three months.
The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Ltd had earlier disqualified the REL-led consortium from bidding for the country''s longest sea link expressway to be built at an estimated cost of Rs2,600 crore.
The REL consortium, which includes Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company Ltd, would now be the fourth bidder for the project, where three others have already qualified on technical grounds.
On 4 June the Bombay High Court had stayed the opening of the bids for four weeks till 2 July, which was later extended by the Supreme Court.
The REL consortium had challenged MSRDC''s decision to disqualify it from participating in the bidding process on the ground that its partner Hyundai did not meet the criterion of Rs200 crore net worth.
REL
had stated that the company on its own was capable of meeting the net worth for
the entire consortium. It had sought a direction to the Maharashtra government
to allow the consortium to participate in the bidding process.