JUDGMENT

Sanjay Kumar, CJ. - The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, launched the 'Jal Jeevan Mission' to provide functional water-tap connections to every household in the country by the year 2024. In turn, the State of Manipur undertook the Manipur Water Supply Project at a projected cost of Rs.3064.58 Crore with the aid and assistance of the New Development Bank (NDB), a bank established by the BRICS nations at Shanghai, China. The State of Manipur aims at establishing an Integrated Water Supply Project for Imphal Planning Area Phase-3 and supply of drinking water to 25 towns and to 1731 habitations in the rural areas of Manipur.

As recommended by the NDB and in order to attract international competitive bidding, the project was divided into 14 procurement packages. One such procurement package is the Manipur Water Supply Project [SH: Providing Drinking Water Supply to other Towns (13 nos.) - Works Package: OTP P-VI (W)]. Invitation for bids for this package was issued by the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Government of Manipur, under NIT No.CE/PHE/3-94/NDB(W)/P-VI/2020/4013 dated 27.02.2021. The NIT discloses tha