The Hindu 23.12.2010
Plea seeking to quash Chennai Corporation notice dismissed
Special Correspondent
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a writ petition
seeking to quash a tender notification of the Chennai Corporation dated
December 9 this year dividing road laying works in the city under three
broad packages. In his order, Justice M. Jaichandren said the
petitioners, Paver Finish Road Builders’ Association, Chennai, and 11
others, had not been able to substantiate their claim that the
classification of the works into major packages had been done in a mala
fide manner. There was nothing to show that the notification was
arbitrary or illegal.
In the notification, the entire works in the city had been divided
into three packages — 84 roads at a cost of Rs.1834 lakh, 79 roads at a
cost of Rs.1943 lakh and 103 roads at a cost of Rs.1950 lakh.
The petitioners prayed the court to quash the notification and issue a
consequent direction to the authorities to split the works road-wise,
division-wise, unit-wise and zone-wise and issue a fresh tender and
proceed in accordance with law. The members of the association, who were
registered Class-I contractors, were eligible to participate in the
tenders, the value of which may even be above Rs.75 lakh.
The tender conditions made it impossible for them to participate in
the tender process. It was for the first time in many years that the
civic body had divided the works into three major packages, which
required very heavy investments in material, men and machinery. In spite
of representations to the authorities, no action was taken to issue
tenders by splitting the works into smaller packages, enabling the
association members to participate in the tender process.
