UNIVERSAL CABLES LIMITED & OTHERS Vs. STATE OF

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Universal Cables Limited and KET Industries Limited and their respective share holders, petitioners 1 to 4 assail the tender flouted by the 2nd respondent-APTRANSCO announced vide IFB/Tender Notice No.APT-e-05/2017, bearing ID No.119074 through e-platform.

(2.) The nature of work notified in the tender envisage supply, erection, laying, testing and commissioning of 220 KV UG cables for diversion of 220 KV lines passing across the seed capital region involving laying of underground cables for power transmission, on turnkey basis, in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. (The tender work relating to laying of 132 KV EHT lines is deleted by way of corrigendum issued on 19-09-2017). The period of completion of work notified is 24 months and the estimated contract value is Rs.670,74,84,205/-. The tender issued is for four routes and the routes are as under:-

(3.) The petitioners claim themselves as dominant market players engaged in manufacture, supply and laying of power cables in power transmission and distribution industry and have been manufacturing and supplying extra high voltage (EHV) cables up to 220 KV for the last seven years including underground cable systems on turnkey basis. Petitioners state that the qualification requirements (QRs) set out in the impugned tender are wholly arbitrary, irrational and more stringent than the actual requirement for execution of the tender.