GYANENDRA NATH MOHAPATRA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners, two Class 'A' Contractors empanelled by the Cuttack Development Authority (in short 'C. D. A.') for execution of various works under C. D. A. have filed this writ application questioning the legality and propriety of awarding the job of development of land and infrastructure in sector 10 to K. C. S. Private Limited to the opp. party No. 4.

(2.) THE petitioners have stated that the said development works in sector 10 have been awarded to opp. party No. 4 without inviting any tender, without complying with the prescribed procedure at rates higher than the rates the petitioners would have offered. The petitioners along with other contractors were separately awarded the different development works in other sectors, but the C. D. A. did not give them any opportunity to submit their offers for execution of the development works in sector 10. The C. D. A. invited only the opp. party No. 4 to submit his offer and through negotiation entrusted the development works of Sector 10 to opp. party No. 4. The petitioners have alleged that special favour has been shown to opp party No. 4 for extraneous reasons and that the opp. party No 4 was even exempted from payment of security money for undertaking the development works of Sector 11.

(3.) THE State Government has provided 1800 acres of land to the C. D. A. for setting up a new township thereon and executing the Bidanasi Housing Scheme. The land provided by the Government was undeveloped and without any infrastructure. The C. D. A. divided the area into several Sectors and took up development work phasewise, although the entire Bidanasi Housing Scheme is an integrated and inter connected Scheme. Development of Sector 6 which is close to the existing city was taken up first. The said development work of Sector 6 was entrusted to about 30 to 40 Contractors including the petitioners for execution of different types of development works. It has been stated that the C D A faced enormous problems in completing the development of Sector 6 and found it very difficult to coordinate the works of different Contractors. It was also found that the quality of works differed considerably creating adjustment problems. Failure of one contractor in a particular field or area led to a chain reaction and disruption The completion of development works in Sector 6 was so delayed that land Could not be made ready for handing over possession to the enlisted buyers within the schedule time. In view of enormous difficulties, the C. D. A. ultimately decided to engage big contractors of national repute with required technical and financial capability to take up the entire development work of a particular phase or phases. In pursuance of such decision the C. D. A. published advertisement in reputed National and State Dailies inviting Developers of national repute having experiences in execution of similar development projects worth Rs. 5 crores or more for being short listed and empanelled About 9 Developers responded and and out of them six Developers including opp. party No. 4 were empanalled by the C. D. A. . The petitioners who have neither the experience nor financial capacity to take up such huge work did not and/or could not apply. Offers were invited from thesix empanelled Developers including opp. party No. 4 for execution of the development works of Sectors 8 and 11. The Tender Committee comprising well experienced Engineers and technical persons considered all aspects and decided to award the work to opp. party No. 4. The said decision was also approved and accepted by the State Government. Necessary agreement was entered into and the development work commenced from December 31, 1997. The opp, party No. 4 completed the development of section 8 to the fullest satisfaction of C. D. A. .