Supreme Court Rejects L&T’s Plea Challenging Tender Of Karnataka’s Sharavati Power Project

Supreme Court Rejects L&T’s Plea Challenging Tender Of Karnataka’s Sharavati Power Project

The 2,000-megawatt project is the country's largest pump storage power generation unit

The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea by Larsen & Toubro Ltd, which challenged the short-term tender floated by the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) for constructing the Rs.8,000 crores River Sharavati project.

The river is a vital source of hydroelectric power in the state and Karnataka aims to solve the power crisis in the State through this big-budget project.

The bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra upheld the 25 April order of the Karnataka High Court declining the petition by L&T.

The court stated, "We are not inclined to entertain the Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution of India.”

In its appeal, the engineering and construction major had stated that the tender process for the project was run in an arbitrary, perverse and unreasonable manner.

However, the High Court had retorted, "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 specialized agency.”

It added, "The submission that the appellant was unable to enter a contract with any 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."

Meanwhile, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure has declared that it has bagged the 2,000-megawatt project, the country's largest pump storage power generation unit.