Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) cancels its consultancy agreement with Mumbai-based M/s STUP Consultants Pvt Ltd after it has been found that the RFP (request for proposal) conditions had been violated by the Indo-French consortium.
The agreement signed with STUP, appointing it as project consultant, on August 17 has been cancelled and KIAL has decided to call fresh bids for selecting a new project consultant, KIAL Managing Director V. Thulasidas told The Hindu on Thursday.
The decision comes in the wake of the STUP’s reply to a show-cause notice served on it by KIAL. It is now found that STUP was blacklisted by the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board when it submitted bids for the Kannur project, as pointed out by another firm that lost the bids. Legal opinion also has come against STUP.
Earlier, KIAL had served a show-cause notice on STUP after it was pointed out by a firm that the consortium had been disqualified/blacklisted in two earlier contracts with the Uttarakhand Infrastructure Development Corporation and the Rajkot municipal corporation.
Then STUP submitted an affidavit that it was not blacklisted or disqualified in any other contracts.
STUP had formed a consortium with M/s Darashaw Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, for providing project consultancy to KIAL. In addition, STUP has engaged experts from TERI, New Delhi, and Air Transport & Tourism Advisors India Pvt Ltd., New Delhi, for providing specialist services.
No money given
Although KIAL has not given any money to the project consultant, the MD said it had commenced work in Kannur. KIAL is now thinking of including new riders for selecting the new consultant. It has decided to claim damages from STUP on account of the cancellation of the agreement. The consortium won the bid for Rs.14.5 crore.
The selection and appointment of the new project consultant will be made through a transparent bidding process.
The bids will be evaluated by an evaluation committee appointed by the board, strictly in accordance with the norms and eligibility criteria to be prescribed in the RFP documents.
The KIAL board is being convened next week in Kochi and a decision to call fresh bids will be taken at the meeting. Efforts are on to call the bids at the earliest and appoint the project consultant by October first week.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3868854.ece
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