Bombay High Court seeks BEST’s reply to Tata Motor’s plea against disqualification – The Indian Express

On February 26, the BEST had published a tender notice for the operation of stage carriage services of 1,400 single decker AC electric buses (with driver) for Mumbai and its suburbs on gross cost contract (GCC) model for 12 years.

As per BEST’s plea, Tata Motors made its pre-bid submissions on March 11, requesting for certain technical modifications and submitted its financial and technical bid for tender on April 25. On May 6, BEST published a technical suitability evaluation of the tender and disqualified Tata Motors, prompting it to approach HC.

The tender was won by Evey Trans Private Limited, with the order being valued at nearly Rs 2,450 crore.

Justice Nitin Sambre and Justice Anil Pansare was on Monday hearing a plea by Tata Motors, urging HC to review BEST’s decision.

Tata Motors, through senior advocate Mustafa Doctor and briefed by team of Karanjawala & Company, argued that the company’s technical bid was arbitrarily rejected to give unfair favour to Evey Trans.

The company said that BEST selectively relaxed norms – like permitting a bus to be charged every one hour – to allow other bidders and this benefitted Evey Trans. It further said that BEST waived requirements like the need to match rates while evaluating bids.

Further, Tata Motors said that its bid, in conformity with tender conditions, had provided a guarantee that its buses can ply 200 km with a charge of 80 per cent without any interruption.

The plea said the BEST had erroneously declared the bid submitted by Tata Motors as “technically non-responsive” and sought it to be reviewed.

However, senior advocate Sharan Jagtiani, appearing for BEST, denied the claims. The HC asked BEST to file a reply to the plea and posted next hearing to May 23.