ARUN PALLI,J. - (1.)Aggrieved by the rejection of its technical bid submitted in response to a notice dated 21.01.2019 issued by respondent No.4 calling for a bid for selection of a contractor for engineering, procurement, construction, testing, commissioning of approaches to Rail Over Bridge and Rail Under Bridge on Pakhowal Rail Road crossing and development of Rotary club as Smart street in Ludhiana City under Smart City Mission, the petitioner, a joint venture, has invoked the extra ordinary jurisdiction conferred upon this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
(2.)Petitioner is a joint venture comprising of M/s Ceigall India Ltd. and M/s Gawar Construction Ltd. having a share holding of 74% and 26%, respectively. This joint venture was entered between the respective companies on 20.02.2019 for the purpose of bidding a tender issued by respondent No.4-Ludhiana Smart City Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'LSCL'). It is a Special Purpose Vehicle (hereinafter referred to as 'SPV') established as a limited company under the Companies Act, 2013 incorporated as per the Mission Statement and Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Urban Development for the purpose of implementation of Smart City Mission. Under the Mission Statement and Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, the Smart City Mission has to be operated as Centrally Sponsored Scheme and the Central Government proposed financial support to the Mission to the extent of Rs.48,000/- crores over five years i.e. on an average of Rs.100/- crores per city per year for the cities selected as Smart Cities and equal amount on matching basis is required to be contributed by the State/Urban Local Bodies.
(3.)The Scheme further provides that the implementation of the Mission at the city level will be done by a SPV, created for the purpose to plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the smart city development project. Each smart city is proposed to have a SPV to be headed by a full time Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and to have nominees of Central Government, State Government and Urban Local Bodies on its board. The execution of the project may be done through joint venture subsidiaries, public private partnership (PPP), turnkey contracts, etc. suitably dovetailed with revenue streams. The SPV is a public limited company to be incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 at the city-level in which the State/UT and Urban Local Bodies will be the promoters having 50-50 equity share holding.