Bids for 4 ultra mega power plants to start soon: Piyush Goyal

The bidding process for four ultra mega power plants (UMPPs) would start in the next three months, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.

"The centre has identified three-four UMPPs. The Cheyyur bid will probably come out for Tamil Nadu. For Odisha and Bihar too UMPPs are being planned," Goyal said here while addressing the 95th annual session of industry chamber Assocham.

"I hope to talk to the chief minister of Bihar to see if Banka can be expedited, I believe that Jharkhand has an opportunity which we're still developing which could be a unique UMPP, even different from the current scheme of UMPP but probably even better and bigger," he said.

"So we're working on all of these and in the next three months all these bids should come up," he added.

Speaking about natural gas-based power plants, Goyal said the government would be seeking involvement of the multinationals in the pooling of the gas in a transparent bidding manner and a policy in this regard was being worked out.

On the recently announced financial restructuring package for distribution companies, Goyal said the UDAY scheme would result in a saving of Rs.180,000 crore and 24X7 power supply.

On the renewable energy emphasis of the government, he said, grid parity had been achieved at Rs.4.60 per unit, which rate has been confirmed for the next 25 years.

"No other source would give you this kind of confirmed rate," he said.