Power ministry constitutes committee to design bid document for UMPP

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Taking the first step towards designing the new ‘Standard Bidding Document’ for Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP), the ministry of power has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Pratyush Sinha, ex-Chief Vigilance Commissioner.

The recent UMPP bidding was scrapped off owing to private players pulling out of the race blaming the bid document.

The other members are R N Choubey, special secretary, ministry of power Pramod Deo, ex-chairman, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, S Vishwanathan, ex-managing director of SBI and Rakesh Kacker, retired IAS currently senior fellow at TERI.

The committee has been set up to address various issues related to the subject and to encourage larger participation from investors and developers. “The committe will examine standard bidding document applicable to for UMMP and case-2 projects,” said the meeting notice for the committee. The first meeting of the committee is on January 23.

Ministry of power cancelled the two year long bidding process of two UMPPs in Tamil Nadu and Orissa. The decision came after private companies pulled out of the bid process with PSUs NTPC and NHPC emerging as the only bidders.

Business Standard  reported in December 2014 that the ministry of power in a letter to Power Finance Corporation in December 2014, which was the convenor for the bidding, had said that fresh bidding would be as per the new standard bidding documents. It is likely to be drafted in coming two months and power ministry would oversee the fresh bidding.

Private players had in their prior communications with the ministry of power has raised concerns on the Design, Build, Finance, Operate, and Transfer (DBFOT) model for the UMPP, and threatened it would not invest in the mega plan.

Through Association of Power Producers, the private sector had highlighted that DBFOT model does not apportion risk equitably. “All losses goes to the power generator and gains to the procurer, leaving the power producer as a contractor,” said APP in its letter.