Nepal Telecom 10 million GSM lines project
KATHMANDU, SEP 25 -
The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday rejected Chinese telecom vendor Huawei Technologies’ writ petition that demanded a stay order against any possible forfeiture of its bid security of $4.6 million by Nepal Telecom ( NT ).
Responding to Huawei’s writ petition, a division bench of Justices Tarka Raj Bhatta and Bhaidhya Nath Upadhyaya issued the order.
Refusing in advance to accept the contact for 5.2 million GSM mobile lines — Package A of NT ’s 10 million GSM lines project — Huawei on August 29 had filed the writ petition, fearing possible seizure of its bid security amount by NT .
NT has already seized the bid security amount ($4.6 million) of ZTE Corporation for the latter’s failure to undertake the package.
NT officials said the court’s decision has paved the way for the operator to seize Huawei’s bid security deposited in Standard Chartered Bank, if the Chinese company does not accept the contract. NT plans to approach Huawei formally if Swedish vendor Ericsson refuses to receive the letter of acceptance and sign an agreement for the package by Tuesday.
As per NT ’s bidding condition, vendors would have to deposit 2.5 percent of total project cost as bid security and the amount would be seized if a vendor holding the legal responsibility does not accept the project.
Guna Kesari Shrestha, spokesperson for NT , said they would soon issue a letter of intent to Huawei if Ericsson does not to sign an agreement by Tuesday. “Ericsson’s bid security amount will also be seized legally if it does not come for an agreement,” she added.
Indicating that it will not accept NT ’s proposal, Ericsson recently filed a writ petition in Kathmandu District Court seeking an order to bar NT from seizing its bid security of $4.6 million. Issuing a public notice on September 11, NT asked Ericsson to accept the package A and sign an agreement within 15 days.
Following SC’s verdict on Monday, Huawei wrote a letter to NT saying it has extended the bid security and validity date until October 19, 2012, indicating that it could take up the project, an NT source said.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
