Initial bids for Cheyyur power project likely by Sept

Initial bids for the 4,000 MW ultra mega power project at Cheyyur in Tamil Nadu would be called in September this year, even as the preliminary bids for two such projects at Orissa and Chhattisgarh have not made any headway due to environmental hurdles.

"As far as Cheyyur is concerned, work is in progress. We should be able to float the RFQ (Request for Qualification) by September," a Power Ministry official told PTI.

"This project is not in relation to the Bedabahal (Orissa) and Sarguja (Chhattisgarh) projects, this is an imported coal-based project," the official added.

Cheyyur UMPP would be the seventh project for which the Power Finance Corporation, which is the nodal agency for UMPPs, would invite initial bids.

The government has awarded four UMPPs, of which Reliance Power has bagged three projects -- Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand).

Country's largest private power producer Tata Power is executing the fourth UMPP at Mundra in Gujarat.

The RFQs for other two UMPPs in Chhattisgarh and Orissa got delayed as the Ministry of Environment and Forests declared the coal blocks allotted for these projects as No-Go areas or the areas where mining would be prohibited as it may have an adverse impact on the environment.

The Power Ministry is in talks with the Environment Ministry over the issue for about an year but there has been no breakthrough so far.

The government plans to add 1,00,000 Mw of electricity in the 12th Five-Year Plan Period (2012-17) of which a major chunk would be contributed by these projects.