NTPC floats Rs 19k-cr tender

The country’s biggest power producer NTPC has floated bids for 800-Mw bulk supercritical units for Rs 19,000 crore even as the Delhi High Court on Thursday barred it from opening price bids for an earlier tender for 660 Mw units.

The court has asked NTPC to submit original records concerning the bids by Monday while “maintaining an interim arrangement till the pronouncement of judgment”. A consortium of Ansaldo and Gammon had taken NTPC to the court after it was disqualified from bidding on the grounds that certain parts in the equipment were outsourced.

The court will hear another plea of the consortium on Thursday for allowing it to submit price bid pending a final order. Three consortia — BHEL-Alstom, L&T-Mitsubishi Heavy Industry and BGR-Hitachi — have already submitted their bids to NTPC, which were to be opened on January 20. This was the second time NTPC had floated the tender. In the first round, it had disqualified the L&T consortium on technical grounds.

Bharat Forge-Alstom has already won the turbine contract of the 660-Mw tender beating JSW-Toshiba and a consortium comprising BHEL and Siemens. BHEL has the option of matching the price.

NTPC floated the bulk tender for 660 Mw in October 2009. Only BHEL and L&T had bid for the boilers but the package was retendered last June.

NTPC’s orders are for 11 boilers, nine for its own projects and two for the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). According to the tender conditions, the lowest bidder would be given an order for six units. If BHEL is not the lowest bidder, the government will award it the order for the remaining five units if it agrees to match the lowest bid. The option will be given to others, in case BHEL does not match the bid, in the order of ranking.

The nine units of 800 Mw, tenders for which are now open, will be installed at Lara in Chhattisgarh, three at Kudgi in Karnataka, and two each at Darllipalli and Gajamara in Orissa state.