HC dismisses PIL challenging medical services tender

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday dismissed a plea that challenged a tender awarded to a consortium, BVG India, Sumeet Facilities Limited and SSG Transporte Sanitario, to provide medical services in the state. The plea, which was filed by an NCP (SP) leader, was later taken up by the court suo moto after Birendra Saraf, the state’s advocate general, raised doubts regarding the petitioner’s involvement in the matter.

A division-bench comprising chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice Makarand Karnik, while dismissing the public interest litigation (PIL) said, “It is not for the petitioner to determine the number of ambulances which should be open for the state to advance public health. The tender was issued to provide emergency medical services with a fleet of 937 ambulances across the state of Maharashtra, which is in public interest. The project must progress without interruption and intervention of the court in such cases should be minimal.”

The PIL which challenged a tender was dated January 4, 2024, issued by the commissioner of health service and mission director, National Health Mission, Mumbai. It had questioned the lack of transparency in the tendering process, pointing out technical glitches, allegedly awarding the tender arbitrarily, pending forensic audit against one of the consortium members, and changes in the terms of tender conditions relating to the number of ambulances.

Before this, in 2011, the government of Maharashtra initiated the Maharashtra Emergency Medical Services (MEMS) with 937 ambulances (235 Advanced Life Support and 702 Basic Life Support) on a turnkey basis. BVG India Ltd. was awarded the contract from 2014 to 2019, which was extended until January 2024.

The extension was awarded after the public health department proposed upgrading the infrastructure with new ambulances, medical equipment, and IT hardware/software, following the National Health Mission Conditionalities Framework 2022-24, in April 2023. An expert committee was formed to define specifications for ambulances and IT systems.

A 13-member tender committee was constituted in June 2023 to finalise the tendering process. The cabinet approved the new MEMS project in July 2023, deciding on a 10-year public-private partnership (PPP) model with financial and technical approval. Following this, in August 2023, the government allocated a purse of ₹759.56 crore for around 1,786 life support ambulances. The tender document was published on September 12, 2023, with a pre-bid meeting held on September 18, 2023. Due to a technical glitch, the tender disappeared from the MAHATENDER portal on December 28, 2023, before its validity expired.

It was re-published on January 4, 2024, incorporating the corrigenda. Despite extensions, no bids were received initially. On January 24, 2024, a bid from the consortium of Sumeet Facilities Ltd., BVG India Ltd., and SSG Transporte Sanitario was submitted, which was approved after two rounds of negotiations on March 15, 2024, and the contract was awarded to the consortium the same day.

Amicus, Venkatesh Dhond, pointed out that Sumeet Facilities was appointed as an advisor to the state, and therefore it could not have participated in the bid submitted in pursuance of the impugned tender. He further submitted that since forensic audit was pending against BVG, which is a part of successful consortium, the tender ought not to have been awarded to the consortium.