ISA to float global tender for 5 lakh solar pump sets

International Solar Alliance (ISA) today said it plans to come out with a global tender this year for price discovery of five lakh solar pump sets.
The ISA is an initiative by India where an alliance of 121 solar resource-rich countries have come together.
"International Solar Alliance is going to make a small global tender for five hundred thousand pump sets. Five Hundred
thousand solar pump sets for the farmers in 121 countries means 500 thousand families lives can be changed. The income can go up, employment will come," ISA interim Director General Upendra Tripathy said here.
The ISA plans to come out with the tender before December 9, 2017, he said.

Tripathy asserted that the tender will not be for purchase but for price discovery.

"We will come out with global tender for price discovery of (solar) pumps....So we are interacting with the manufactures of various countries. We have been in touch with the coutures who want solar pumps. Uganda wants some 30,000 solar pumps. Mauritius wants pumps. So right now we are talking to various countries saying that how many pumps they can actually take during next two years," Tripathy said.
He was speaking during international conference on solar India organised by Assocham.
"And once you get this aggregated figures of five hundred thousand from our members which are prospecting to be 121 we will go with the global tender," he added.

Simultaneously, the ISA is now working on the format of the tender with EESL and KPMG, he said.
"So they are the expert people who guide the ISA how to float in...We plan to come out (with tender) and we also presume that the prices will come down by 20 per cent," he added.