HC refuses to interfere with CIDCO’s fresh tenders for Kondhane dam

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday refused to interfere with the fresh tenders invited by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) to construct the Kondhane dam in Karjat tehsil of Raigad district.
The project has been shrouded in several controversies, including critics’ claims that the constitution would displace two villages and several corruption charges and cost escalations over the years. The dam is intended to provide 245 million litres of water per day to the Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area (NAINA) and surrounding areas, benefiting a population of 1.85 million people.
The offer presented to the court by the contractor -FA Enterprises – to finish the project at the rates of 2011 with an estimated cost of ₹630 crore was rejected by the court as the current estimate of the dam is ₹1,348 crore. In 2011, the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation (KIDC) invited tenders to build the dam and FA Enterprises won the bid to construct it. Soon after the bidding process was over, the height of the dam was increased from 39 metres to 71 metres and its width was increased from 250 metres to 600 metres. A fresh work order was issued in favour of the firm in August 2011.
The firm claimed that after it started work and spent around ₹99.15 crore on it, KIDC issued a stop work notice in April 2012 and eventually in December 2012, the corporation cancelled the work order issued to it – after the Anti-Corruption Bureau undertook an inquiry into alleged irregularities in grant of the contract.
In the meanwhile, the state government transferred the dam project to CIDCO, as it was envisaged to supply potable water to Navi Mumbai in June 2021, the ACB closed its open inquiry and in 2021, the firm and its directors and others were discharged from the criminal case registered against them in connection with the Kondhane project.
FA Enterprises, however, pointed to a June 8, 2021 order on a bunch of writ petitions filed by it in respect of other projects, in which the high court had granted liberty to KIDC to execute the projects through the firm or through an interested party by following due process. The firm claimed that in view of the order, CIDCO was legally bound to consider awarding the work contract to them.
CIDCO’s counsel, senior advocate GS Hegde, opposed the petition, submitting that the firm had no right to seek the contract without participating in the tender process. Hegde also pointed out that earlier the dam was to be constructed as a Concrete Face Rockfill Dam, but now CIDCO has in consultation with experts changed its design and plans to construct it as a Roller Compacted Concrete Dam.
The division bench of chief justice DK Upadhyaya and justice Amit Borkar accepted Hegde’s arguments and dismissed the petition. The bench said while passing the orders petitions filed by FA Enterprises, the high court had only granted liberty to CIDCO to execute the project through the petitioner or other interested party by following due process.
“Such liberty granted to CIDCO by the court would not mean, in our considered opinion, that the petitioner solely is entitled to be considered for award of the work relating to the construction of the dam in question. The said orders, in our considered opinion, also do not create or vest any right in the petitioner,” the court said.
On the contrary, the bench said, the order spoke about “following due process” and “in our opinion, due process is being followed by CIDCO by issuing the impugned tender notice in which the petitioner, if eligible, can participate and if successful, can also be awarded the contract.”