Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Against Termination of Sunkoshi-Marin Diversion Project Contract

Kathmandu. The Supreme Court has dismissed the writ petition filed by Patel-Raman JV challenging the government's decision to terminate the contract agreement for the civil structures of the Sunkoshi-Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project.

The joint bench of Justices Hari Prasad Phuyal and Nityananda Pandey ordered on Tuesday that the interim order previously issued would not continue.

Previously, on Mangsir 10, a bench of Supreme Court Justice Tek Prasad Dhungana had issued a short-term interim order to halt the implementation of the decision to terminate the contract and confiscate the bank guarantee. The bench had also issued a show-cause order and summoned both parties for a hearing regarding the interim order.

With the Supreme Court's order to dismiss the writ, the path has been cleared for the confiscation of the guarantee deposited by the contractor. The contractor company, Patel-Raman JV, had deposited a bank guarantee of three billion 600 million rupees against performance security and advance payment.

The government had started work on this project, considered a national pride and transformative project, on Magh 11, 2079 BS. Patel-Raman JV had secured the contract for this project on Poush 17, 2079 BS for 14 billion 7 crore 59 lakh rupees, to be completed within 55 months. The decision to terminate the contract was made citing that the work on permanent structures remained limited to one percent even after 33 months.

Along with the process of canceling the contract agreement, the government had also initiated the process to confiscate the large bank guarantee deposited by Patel-Raman JV. The government had confiscated a total bank guarantee of 3 billion 600 million rupees, comprising 2 billion 400 million rupees as performance security and 1 billion 200 million rupees for the advance payment (peski) furnished by the construction entrepreneur.