NTPC to soon award Rs 16,000-cr tender

State-run NTPC will soon award its Rs 16,000-crore bulk tender based on supercritical technology, stuck for the past two years, after a Supreme Court decision keeping out Ansaldo Caldie from bidding.

In March last year, the Delhi High Court had upheld the plea of a consortium of Ansaldo and Gammon against disqualification by NTPC for the bulk tender. The consortium had taken NTPC to the court after being disqualified from Stage-1 bidding on the grounds that certain parts in the equipment were outsourced.

“The Supreme Court verdict paves the way for NTPC to award all the nine units of 660 Mw each. The STG (steam turbine generator) package has been finalised and it is expected that NTPC would be able to award all (contracts) costing about Rs 16,000 crore at the earliest,” said chairman Arup Roy Choudhury.

In addition to this, the balance of plant packages (cooling tower, compressors, pumps, etc) for this pending award, stuck due to non-availability of investment approval because of this litigation, amounting to about Rs 6,000 crore would also be awarded. This will also ensure that all these nine units are delivered within the 12th Plan (2012-17) period, he added.

Of the nine 660-Mw units, two each are to be located at Solapur and Mouda, both in Maharashtra, and two more at Meja in UP. Three would be at Nabinagar in Bihar. Three other consortia — BHEL-Alstom, L&T-Mitsubishi and BGR-Hitachi — have already given price bids to NTPC.

This is the second time that NTPC had floated the tender. In the first round, it had disqualified a Larsen & Toubro-led consortium on technical grounds. NTPC floated the bulk tender in October 2009. Only BHEL and L&T had bid for boilers but the boiler package was re-tendered in June 2010.