Final bid dates for Odisha, Tamil Nadu UMPPs extended

Under new norms, fuel price hike will be passed on to consumer, firms executing projects to mandatorily source equipment from domestic manufacturers

The last dates for submission of final price bids for the two ultra mega power projects in Tamil Nadu and Odisha have now been extended as interested parties want more time to evaluate the tender norms.

The last date for filing RFP (Request for Proposal) for the Tamil Nadu (in Cheyyur) project is now April 23, 2014 and Odisha (in Bedabahal) project is May 7, 2014. Earlier, the final price bid submission date for the UMPPs was February 26.

"All the companies (which had bid in the first round) requested the Power Secretary to extend the date for RFP as they wanted more time to evaluate the new bidding documents for the UMPPs. Their request has been accepted," an official of PFC, the nodal agency for implementing UMPPs, told PTI.

NTPC, Tata Power, NHPC, Adani Power, JSW Energy, Jindal Power (an arm of Jindal Steel and Power), Sterlite Infraventures, CLP India and Larsen & Toubro had submitted applications for the Odisha project.

NTPC, Adani Power, CLP India, GMR Energy, Jindal Power, JSW Energy, L&T and Sterlite Infraventures had submitted bids for the Cheyyur UMPP in Tamil Nadu.

Odisha UMPP is a pit-head power project. Based on domestic coal to be sourced from allocated captive coal blocks, it is expected to cost around Rs 25,000 crore.

The Cheyyur UMPP is a coastal power project, based on imported coal, with an expected investment of about Rs 24,200 crore.

The preliminary bids for these projects were invited last year, after the government revised the existing Standard Bidding Documents (SBDs).

Under the revised norms, any escalation in cost of fuel will be passed on to the consumer as higher tariff and the companies executing projects will have to mandatorily source equipment from domestic manufacturers.

Am UMPP is a thermal power project of at least 4,000 MW capacity.

So far, four UMPPs have been awarded. Of this, Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) have been bagged by Reliance Power. Tata Power is operating the Mundra UMPP in Gujarat.