A Division Bench of the HC comprising Justice Abdul Matin and Justice Tariq-ul-Hakim asked the ministry to forward the offer of the lowest bidder to the Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement for its consideration.

Back in April, the ministry decided to re-tender the project on the plea that the existing tender got an offer much lower than the ministry's estimated cost.

Last year, the Water Development Board (WDB) that had floated the tender for the project selected a proposal outlining a cost of Tk 132 crore by Japanese company Ebara Corporation. A second bidder-- Kanematsu of Japan-- had offered Tk 180 crore.

The project is being implemented mainly using a Japanese Debt Relief Grant Aid of $17.99 million.

Although Ebara's financial proposal and technical qualification are considered outstanding, the water resources ministry through its inter-ministerial tender committee stopped the tender awarding saying that the WDB did not follow some tender guidelines and therefore did not ensure wider participation.

In April, the ministry sought permission of the cabinet committee to re-tender the project. But the Cabinet Division rejected the idea.

The parliamentary standing committee on water resources ministry meanwhile protested the ministry's move and suggested the project should go to the lowest bidder and work should start immediately.

The water resources ministry then came up saying it wants to retender the project by using its own authority.

This prompted Ebara to file a writ petition with the High Court.

Installation of new pumps under the GK Project will increase its irrigation coverage to 142,000 hectares from 100,000 hectares now. This will raise rice production by 286,650 tonnes.

The GK Project was set up in the sixties by installing three pumps to increase crop production in the south-western region. During 1981-93, this project was rehabilitated in two phases under Asian Development Bank loan, but the original pumps were not replaced.