Guwahati, May 16: Gauhati High Court today gave the go-ahead to the National Games Secretariat (NGS) to terminate its contract with M/s Sportina Exim, the Indian marketing agent for Dutch sports goods manufacturer M/s Desso DLW, and allowed it to engage another bidder for the project.
The National Games Secretariat had awarded the contract for supply and installation of astroturf at the newly-built Maulana M. Tayyebulla Hockey Stadium to M/s Sportina Exim.
Sources said the court of Justice Ranjan Gogoi disposed of the litigation, describing the NGS as the best judge to choose contractors to execute the project after M/s Sportina failed to execute the work on time.
When the petitioner appealed for another chance yesterday, the court asked the Mumbai-based agent to deposit Rs 5 crore as security and execute the project within three months, failing which the company would forfeit the deposit. However, the petitioner expressed its inability to do so, the NGS sources added.
M/s Sportina had moved court last week challenging a notice of termination of contract served by the NGS after the deadline for handing over the completed infrastructure lapsed on April 26.
In February, after an earlier reminder by the NGS, the company had said that the actual production of the material for the turf was yet to begin. It also claimed that it was confused about the dimensions of the required astroturf.
The NGS had ordered one full-sized and one half (practice) turf of international standards. ?There should not be any confusion about the sizes of an international product manufacturer like Desso DLW,? an NGS official had said.
M/s Polytan, which quoted nearly Rs 16 lakh more than the Dutch company, now stands the next contender for the project. The German manufacturer has assured the project will be executed in four months, an NGS official said. M/s Sportina was awarded the contract at an approximate cost of Rs 2.14 crore.
The court reserved its ruling on another PIL, filed by an NGO, Barnaddi Grammya Unnayan Samiti, alleging quality compromise in laying the synthetic track at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium.
