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Rel Infra has accused the state body of favouring a particular contractor
for collecting toll.
The company has alleged that its exclusion from the second round of bidding for
the Rs 2,100-crore project is illegal and arbitrary. Rel Infra said it had met with
all mandatory requirements of the tendering process and was not even informed about
its bid being rejected.
The case came up on Tuesday before Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice A M
Khanwilkar, when the company asked for a week’s time to make amendments in its petition
and to add the winning bidder as a respondent in the case.
Rel Infra alleged that MSRDC was favouring the current contractors. MSRDC counsel
Rafiq Dada informed the court that there were three contenders at the second stage
and their bids were being evaluated. Rel Infra counsel Iqbal Chhagla, along with
counsel Janak Dwarkadas, contended that the existing toll contractors were managing
the toll collection for over 17 years.
The project will run till 2027 and will cover the toll centres at Vashi, Mulund,
LBS Road, Airoli and Dahisar. The two-stage bidding process involved the approval
of the bidder’s financial criteria and experience first. The bidding is not on the
amount, but on the number of years in which the contractor ensures collection of
the project amount.
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