The Nepal Supreme Court has issued an order against the Nepal Army’s invitation to award the contract for a major road project to a Chinese company where an Indian company was one of the bidders.
The Nepal Army had awarded the contract for the sixth package of the Kathmandu-Terai-Madhesh Expressway to China First Highway Engineering, sidestepping an Indian firm, days before the general elections in the country in November.
The order came after the Supreme court of the country was hearing a writ petition, filed by advocate Rojan Khadka on behalf of an Indian company—Afcons Infrastructure Limited, in which a single bench of justice Tanka Bahadur Moktan issued the interim order valid till Friday, The Kathmandu Post reported
The court also set the date for another hearing on the interim order the same day.
The Indian company was one of the bidders for package 6 of the Fast Track Project whose financial bid is second lowest after that of China,” the report quoted Rijal as saying.
“The disqualification of the Chinese contractor means the Indian contractor would get a contract,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rijal had registered a writ petition at the Supreme Court demanding that the army should not implement a notification awarding the contract to the Chinese company.
On November 11, the Nepal Army, which is in charge of the national pride project, issued a letter of intent to China First Highway Engineering that was earlier disqualified in the tender but later made a backdoor entry despite lacking technical expertise.