Thirteen companies, almost all major power sector players in the country, have shown interest in bidding for the 4,000-Mw Tilaiya ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Jharkhand.
This is the fourth UMPP, conceived to fast-track capacity addition through public private partnerships, to go under the hammer.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Lanco Infratech, Reliance Power, Sterlite, Tata Power, AES, Dian Wijaya (Malaysia), Torrent Power, Essar, GVK, Citra, NTPC Ltd and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) submitted the requests for qualification (RFQs) to the Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for implementing ultra mega power projects.
“This is a fairly good response,” said a PFC official. There are three overseas firms in the list of interested parties -- AES (US), Dian Wijaya (a subsidiary of Tanjong, Malaysia) and the Genting group of Malaysia, in partnership with Lanco.
Incidentally, the tally of 13 in this round betters that of 10 companies that had been qualified a few months ago for the same project. Later, it was decided to reinvite bids to accommodate tighter eligibility norms.
“It could take a month before price bids were invited,” said the official. The government hopes to complete the bidding process before March 2008.
Response to the project was expected to be muted due to the influence of Naxalites in the region. However, companies like Reliance Power (Sasan and Krishnapatnam) and Tata Power (Mundra), which have got UMPPs under their belt, are also in the race for this pit-head coal project which, compared to imported coal-based projects, entails less risks.
Spread over around 4,000 acres, the Tilaiya project is similar to the Sasan project in that both are based on pithead coal. Reliance Power won the Sasan project by putting the lowest bid of Rs 1.196 per unit.
The shell company — Jharkhand Integrated Power Limited — set up to pilot the project and get clearances from the state government has already got water and land clearances. However, it is yet to secure forest clearance.
The coal for the project would come from the north Kerandary coal mines, which has a capacity of 900 million tonnes. The power from this project would be distributed to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand.
This is the fourth UMPP, conceived to fast-track capacity addition through public private partnerships, to go under the hammer.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Lanco Infratech, Reliance Power, Sterlite, Tata Power, AES, Dian Wijaya (Malaysia), Torrent Power, Essar, GVK, Citra, NTPC Ltd and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) submitted the requests for qualification (RFQs) to the Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for implementing ultra mega power projects.
“This is a fairly good response,” said a PFC official. There are three overseas firms in the list of interested parties -- AES (US), Dian Wijaya (a subsidiary of Tanjong, Malaysia) and the Genting group of Malaysia, in partnership with Lanco.
Incidentally, the tally of 13 in this round betters that of 10 companies that had been qualified a few months ago for the same project. Later, it was decided to reinvite bids to accommodate tighter eligibility norms.
“It could take a month before price bids were invited,” said the official. The government hopes to complete the bidding process before March 2008.
Response to the project was expected to be muted due to the influence of Naxalites in the region. However, companies like Reliance Power (Sasan and Krishnapatnam) and Tata Power (Mundra), which have got UMPPs under their belt, are also in the race for this pit-head coal project which, compared to imported coal-based projects, entails less risks.
Spread over around 4,000 acres, the Tilaiya project is similar to the Sasan project in that both are based on pithead coal. Reliance Power won the Sasan project by putting the lowest bid of Rs 1.196 per unit.
The shell company — Jharkhand Integrated Power Limited — set up to pilot the project and get clearances from the state government has already got water and land clearances. However, it is yet to secure forest clearance.
The coal for the project would come from the north Kerandary coal mines, which has a capacity of 900 million tonnes. The power from this project would be distributed to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Source : Business Standard
13th November, 2007