Unitech's landmark acquisition of 340-acres of prime land in Noida for Rs 1,582.84 crore (Rs 15.83 billion) may be headed for the courts as a three-member consortium led by ICity Infrastructure Ltd said today that its higher bid of Rs 2,100 crore (RS 21 billion) was ignored.
"Unitech's offer is lower by 25 per cent {Rs 518 crore (Rs 5.18 billion)}, which is a substantial loss to the exchequer. Moreover, we have been neither informed verbally nor in writing about our disqualification. Normally, tenders are allotted to the highest bidder. Accordingly, we are approaching the courts to stay the allotment until justice is done," the consortium's managing partner, Yunus Zia, told Business Standard.
According to some reports, ICity was knocked out in the technical evaluation stage. However, Zia said its bid for the high-profile Express City project had been accepted.
"We had qualified for participating in the bid and submitted a sealed bid in the proper format. We also paid the Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) required as the minimum deposit," he said.
The consortium includes Bangalore-based India Builders Corporation, Puruvankare Builders and United Telecom.
DLF was the third bidder for the property and had quoted Rs 1,401.46 crore (Rs 14.01 billion).
Attempts to contact the Noida Authority and Unitech did not meet with a response.
The bid price of Rs 2,100 crore (Rs 15,284 per square metre) was made keeping in mind the value of the land, Zia added.
This is not the only legal challenge that the Express City project seems to be faced with.
The Allahabad high court is already hearing petitions filed by players who got excluded from the bidding process because of the tough eligibility criteria (33 parties had picked up the bid form).
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