Govt threw away Dharavi project, suffered a loss: Seclink

The Bombay High Court heard arguments regarding the Dharavi redevelopment project, with senior advocate Virendra Tulzapurkar claiming that the state government gave the project to Adani Group at a loss to the public exchequer. Tulzapurkar argued that the government's decision to cancel the tender and issue a fresh one with terms favoring Adani resulted in a loss of around ₹3,200 crore. The court will continue to deliberate on the matter on January 15.

MUMBAI: The state government gave away the Dharavi redevelopment project to Adani Group at a loss to the public exchequer, senior advocate Virendra Tulzapurkar submitted before the Bombay high court while arguing on behalf of UAE-based Seclink Technology Corporation.

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“Is it sustainable for the government to throw away the tender when I was ready to bring in ₹7,200 crore as a capital contribution for the project? Is it not a loss to the public that you (Adani) will not bring ₹7,200 crore, but only around ₹4,000 crore,” the senior advocate asked.

A bench of chief justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and justice Arif S Doctor was hearing a petition of STC challenging the government’s decision to cancel a 2019 tender for the redevelopment of Dharavi and its subsequent decision to issue a fresh tender in 2020 with such terms that favoured the Adani Group.

In 2019, STC secured the bid for the Dharavi redevelopment project with a quoted amount of ₹7,200 crore, surpassing the bid by Adani Infrastructure and Developers Private Limited, which quoted ₹4,539 crore. However, in 2020, the Devendra Fadnavis-led government decided to incorporate railway land for the slum dwellers’ rehabilitation. They also approved a payment of ₹800 crore to acquire 45 acres of land from the railway. This sudden inclusion of new land disrupted STC’s plans as it altered the project’s parameters.

Facing this dilemma, the government sought the opinion of the then Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni on whether including railway land would change the project’s specifications. The Advocate General advised opting for a new tender since the cost of land acquisition wasn’t initially included in the tender. Consequently, fresh bids were solicited in October 2022.

Unfortunately, STC couldn’t participate in the fresh tender due to certain limitations in the new tender. This resulted in Adani Group being the only bidder, eventually winning the bid by a government resolution of July 13, 2023.

According to Tulzapurkar, these reasons given by the government for the cancellation of the tender are completely untenable. According to him, the railway land to be used for rehabilitation was already part of the previous bid issued in 2019. The tender already had a map that included nearly 90 acres of railway land as part of the land available for the project.

“You will not annex the map of a land if it is not included in the project,” he said. Also, the financial liability of the bidder was already provided in the first tender. It was clear that the bidder would have to bear the cost of acquisition of the project, which included any cost for acquiring the railway land in question., he said. Therefore, the argument that the bidders were unaware of the financial liabilities is false, he argued.

The court is set to resume the matter on January 15 for further deliberation.