SC dismisses Tata Motors' appeal against BEST e-buses tender

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal by Tata Motors challenging the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport's (BEST) decision to disqualify the company from a tender bid for supplying 2,100 electric buses in Mumbai.

BEST had earlier disqualified Tata Motors' bid as "technically non-responsive," and awarded the contract to Hyderabad-based Evey Trans. The court upheld BEST's decision, saying that there was no merit in Tata Motors' plea.

The development follows a Bombay High Court ruling in July of last year, which affirmed BEST's judgement. A Division Bench of Justices S.V. Gangapurwala and Madhav Jamdar dismissed the petition, concluding that BEST had properly disqualified Tata Motors and that its judgement was final and binding. The Bench further stated that if there are any anomalies in the distribution of the tender, BEST must consider launching a new tender.

Evey Trans Private Limited is an arm of the MEIL group. The company procures the buses from Olectra Greentech (OLECTRA), another group company of MEIL.

While Tata Motors is yet to issue a statement on the developments, Olectra Greentech Ltd., in a regulatory filing said, "We wish to inform you that, today the Hon 'ble Supreme Court of India, has pronounced its judgement by dismissing the Appeal filed by Tata Motors Limited (TML) and allowed the Appeals of Evey Trans Private Ltd (EVEY) and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST)".

On May 23 last year, Olectra bagged its biggest-ever order of 2,100 electric buses worth Rs 3,675 crore from BEST after being declared an L1 bidder. The company is now proposing to extend its capacity at its new greenfield plant in Telangana to 5000 units from 1,800 units currently, which is scalable up to 10,000 vehicles per year. The company already operates 40 electric buses for BEST in Mumbai, in addition to several STUs like Pune, Hyderabad, Goa, Dehradun, Surat, Ahmedabad, Silvassa, and Nagpur.