The judges ordered the work order should not be issued until the next date of hearing of the writ appeal and directed the High Court Registry to list the appeal next on February 12.
The Madras High Court on Tuesday (February 3, 2026) restrained Tamil Nadu government and Tamil Nadu State Highways Authority (TANSHA) from issuing work order to the successful tenderer for the construction of the 14.2 km long elevated corridor from Tiruvanmiyur to Uthandi on the East Coast Road (ECR) in Chennai, besides widening the road into six lanes, at an estimated cost of around ₹2,100 crore.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan passed the interim order on a writ appeal filed by disqualified bidder Dilip Buildcon Limited, based in Bhopal, which claimed it had quoted over ₹600 crore lesser than Hyderabad based KNR Constructions Limited whose technical and financial bids had been found to be in order by TANSHA.
The judges ordered the work order should not be issued until the next date of hearing of the writ appeal and directed the High Court Registry to list the appeal next on February 12. They also made it clear the interim order would not come in the way of TANSHA communicating to the appellant company, the reasons for having rejected its technical bid on December 24, 2025.
The appeal had been preferred against the dismissal of a writ petition filed by Dilip Buildcon seeking a direction to TANSHA to reconsider its technical bid. Senior counsel C. Manishankar, assisted by advocate M. Ashwin Kumar, accused TANSHA of not having assigned any reason for rejecting the technical bid of their client and also alleged preferential treatment had been given to KNR Constructions.
However, the single judge had refused to allow the writ petition after accepting the submissions of Advocate General P.S. Raman, who appeared for the State government as well as TANSHA, and senior counsel Vijay Narayan, representing KNR Constructions, that the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, 1998 does not contemplate disclosure of reasons for rejection prior to the award of the tender.
The A-G had told the court negotiations were underway with KNR Constructions for reducing the amount quoted by it and hence, the reasons for having rejected the technical bid of Dilip Buildcon would be posted on the tender bulletin board only after the award of the tender to the successful bidder. He had also contended the tender process could not be scuttled at the intermediate stage.
On his part, Mr. Narayan had stoutly denied any kind of preferential treatment having been shown by TANSHA to KNR Constructions and contended that the latter was fully eligible to participate in the tender process when the notification calling for bids was issued on August 25, 2025. He said, the last date for submission of tenders was extended only to clarify doubts raised by bidders and not to accommodate his client.
Assisted by advocate Vaibhav R. Venkatesh, the senior counsel had contended KNR Constructions was a reputed construction company that had successfully completed many projects, across the country, including the elevated highway project for a distance of 10.10 km along the Avinashi Road in Coimbatore city.
Published – February 03, 2026 08:58 pm IST
