THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The United Democratic Front (UDF) members staged a walkout in the Assembly on Thursday alleging corruption in the selection of bids for the proposed Vizhinjam Deepsea Port and Container Transhipment Terminal Project.

Seeking adjournment of the proceedings to discuss the situation arising from the Kerala High Court direction that the government take a decision in 15 days on the demand of Zoom Developers, one of the disqualified bidders, for reconsideration of the bids, the Opposition came down heavily on the manner in which the bids had been evaluated and the contract was awarded.

Rebutting the Opposition charge, Law and Ports Minister M. Vijayakumar said the government had gone about the selection process in a transparent manner based on the records and facts before it. Zoom Developers had replaced its Consortium Agreement submitted on October 10, 2007, with a new one on March 11, 2008.

Bidding norms

Under the bidding norms, the new agreement could not be considered as being part of the bid. This was the ground on which Zoom Developers was disqualified.

This left consortiums led by Lanco Infratech, Videocon and Nagarjuna in the fray. Lanco Infratech was selected from among these three based on the bid parameters in a transparent manner.

The Minister said a Single Bench of the High Court had endorsed the government’s decision and that the Division Bench had taken a different view in the matter bringing in new grounds.

The government would now place all facts before the Supreme Court for a final decision.

Seeking leave for the motion, P.C. George (KC-Secular) said the government decision would result in the State losing Rs.332 crore in revenue over 10 years as Zoom Developers had offered to pay Rs.447 crore against Rs.115 crore by Lanco Infratech over 10 years.

The government should be ready to face a judicial inquiry, he said.

Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy said the problem lay in the government not giving Zoom Developers the opportunity to rectify its mistake, as it had done in the case of Apollo Consortium, another of the disqualified bidders.

Source: The Hindu