ABB questions PowerGrid re-bid decision for Rs 7,000-cr project

ABB India, subsidiary of Swiss company ABB, has expressed dissatisfaction over state-run transmission firm PowerGrid’s move to call for fresh offers from shortlisted bidders BHEL-ABB and Siemens India for its Rs 7,000-crore HVDC (high-voltage direct current) sub-stations project.

The PowerGrid board had recently approved a proposal to seek fresh bids from the two bidders, a consortium of BHEL and ABB India, and the Indian unit of Germany’s Siemens AG. “We are very surprised to hear about the potential re-bid of the Northeast-Agra, HVDC power transmission project. We have not received any official information in this regard. On May 14, the ABB-led consortium was publicly declared lowest bidder on this project,” said a company spokesperson.

All subsequent technical questions have been satisfactorily answered and by all applicable legal and public procurement requirements, a re-bid of this project would be neither justified nor legitimate, he added.

While the entire transmission project consisting of HVDC sub-stations and an 800-Kv transmission line from Biswanath Chariali in Assam to Agra in north India is worth about Rs 12,000 crore, the sub-station portion is estimated at Rs 7,000 crore.

“We will call for fresh bids from existing bidders BHEL-ABB and Siemens for sub-stations in our transmission line due to some technical reason,” PowerGrid’s chairman and managing director, S K Chaturvedi, had said. The reason could not be clearly ascertained.