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TN govt defends award of Ennore project to Siemens-led consortium

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has denied Union petroleum minister Vazhapadi K Ramamurthy's allegation of irregularities in the state government-owned Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation awarding the Ennore liquefied natural gas or LNG project to a Siemens-led consortium.

Ramamurthy had demanded a probe into the award of the project to the consortium overlooking the claims of another consortium comprising the public sector Gas Authority of India Limited, Petronet LNG and Petronas of Malaysia.

Late last week, Karunanidhi released copies of a set of documents including a letter sent to Ramamurthy to counter his charges. He said the documents would clearly reveal that Tidco had strictly adhered to the methodology and procedures stipulated in the bid document.

CRISIL Advisory Services, a reputed organisation in the country, was Tidco's project consultant and its recommendations were accepted, he added.

Karunanidhi said in his letter that the consortium consisting of Siemens Power Ventures, CMS Energy Asia, Grasim Industries and Unocal Bharat was evaluated as l-1 by CRISIL Advisory Services.

Ramamurthy had claimed that the consortium including GAIL had been declared as l-1 in the tender process.

Referring to Ramamurthy's allegation that the Tidco had awarded the contract to an Enron-led consortium, Karunanidhi said he had replied that it was not not Enron, but a Siemens-led consortium.

The chief minister also stated that he had not received Ramamurthy's letter to him dated December 28 last expressing his anguish over the Tidco decision. The copy of the letter was received on March 25, he added.

Among the documents released by Karunanidhi were the Tidco's responses dated December 26 and March 8 last countering the claims made by Petronet LNG and Petronas.

In its responses, the Tidco had denied that the Petronas-led consortium's offer was the lowest. The bids of all the consortia were read out in the presence of their representatives on November 27 last, according to the Tidco.

The Tidco said the evaluation methodology involved rigorous checks for the responsiveness of the respective bids followed by computation. Hence, from a mere reading of the bid figures, it would not be possible to ascertain the identity of the lowest bidder, it added.

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