Govt may invite bids for Cheyyur UMPP in June

In its endeavour to add 30,000 MW capacity through ultra mega power projects, the government is likely to invite bids for the fifth Project at Cheyyur in Tamil Nadu in June this year.

"The RFQs for the Cheyyur UMPP are planned in July this year but efforts are on to advance the same by a month," a power ministry source said.

In a recent meeting at the power ministry, a PFC Consulting Official stated this development. PFC Consulting, a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Finance Corporation, is the nodal agency for this UMPP as well as for such projects to come up in the future.

The official said, "PFC Consulting sought environment clearance for the Cheyyur project from the Ministry of Environment and Forests in December last year."

"Power transmission and fuel transportation studies are being done by state-run transmission utility PowerGrid Corp and RITES Ltd respectively," he said adding that the qualified bidders would be asked to submit the Request for Proposal (RFP).

Like other UMPPs, the Cheyyur project is slated to be operational during the XIIth plan period (2012-17). The government plans to add nearly 30,000 MW through such projects during the same period.

The Government has already awarded four UMPPs. Reliance Power bagged three such projects at Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand). Tata Power is developing the Mundra UMPP in Gujarat.

Reliance Power expected to announce the financial closure for the Sasan project by the end of this month and for the Krishnapatnam project in the first quarter of the next financial year. The financial closure for Tata Power's Mundra UMPP was done in April last year.

Power Finance Corporation, the nodal agency for the Tilaiya UMPP, has awarded the Letter of Intent (LoI) to Reliance Power in January this year.

One unit each of the Mundra and Sasan projects is expected to come up during the current plan period.

In the present scenario, the country has an installed generation capacity of 1,47,000 MW. The government has planned to add 78,577 MW during the XIth plan period (2007-12).

However, there is no formal XIIth plan as far as power generation capacity addition is concerned, but the government is mulling an addition of 100,000 MW capacity during these five years.