REL to bid for Mumbai Trans Harbour Proj: SC

New Delhi, Sep 11: In a relief to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Energy Ltd (REL), the Supreme Court(SC) today allowed the company a time of three months to re-submit its financial bids for the Rs 2,600 crore Mumbai Trans Harbour link Project.

A bench headed by Justice S H Kapadia, while setting aside the Mumbai High Court order, directed REL to submit its financial bid for the country's longest sea link project within three months.

The consortium of REL and Hyundai Engineering&Construction, South Korea, had earlier been disqualified by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) in the pre-bidding process for not meeting financial parameters for the expressway connecting the east coast of Mumbai with the mainland.

Earlier the Mumbai High Court had decided in favour of MSRDC after REL had filed a writ petition. Subsequently, REL appealed agaisnt the high court order in SC on June 19, 2007 and the apex court then stalled the bidding process and accepted REL's plea.

The three consortiums that have already been approved are the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), SKIL and John Laing Construction (UK), Larsen and Toubro, Gammon India Ltd and Sisterna Ltd (Russia) and Indian Farmers Fertilisers Corporation (IFFCO), Skanska Cementation and Italian Thai Development Company and MAEDA (Japan).

UNI