SC dismisses L&T's plea challenging tender of Sharavathi power project in Karnataka

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea by engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro Ltd challenging the short-term tender floated for the construction of the Rs 8,000-crore Sharavathi pumped storage power project in Karnataka.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra upheld the April 25 order of the Karnataka High Court that had also declined the petition by L&T against the tender by Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL).

"We are not inclined to entertain the Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. The Special Leave Petition is accordingly dismissed," the bench said.

 The engineering and construction major had said in its appeal that the tender process for the project had been run in an arbitrary, perverse and unreasonable manner.

In its order, the high court had said, "Electro-mechanical and hydro-mechanical works are admittedly an integral part of the project and the petitioner, being only a civil contractor, was not eligible to perform the work unless it could find association of a specialised agency.

"The submission that the appellant was unable to enter into a contract with any of such agencies finds factual justification, for the petitioner could not show that it had an expert agency as a partner to enter into the memorandum of understanding.” Infrastructure firm Megha Engineering and Infrastructure (MEIL) on Monday said it has bagged the 2,000-megawatt project.

The Sharavathi river is a vital source of hydroelectric power in Karnataka, a company statement said, adding that with a planned total power generation capacity of 2000 MW, it is the country’s largest pump storage power generation unit.

Karnataka aims to solve the power crisis in the state through this big budget project. The cost of the project is over Rs 8,000 crore, it stated.