Govt to invite bids for Rs 1.5-trn transmission proj in 18 months: Sterlite

The industry is expecting the government to invite bids for power transmission infrastructure projects worth Rs 1.50 lakh crore in the next 18 months, Sterlite Power Transmission said on Thursday.

In December, the government had launched a plan with investment opportunities of about Rs 2.44 lakh crore for building a transmission system for evacuating 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil based energy by 2030.

"We expect that nearly 60-65 per cent of these projects totalling Rs 150,000 crore will come up for bidding in next 18 months since completion of all processes and then construction of projects will take another 4-5 years," said a senior Sterlite Power Transmission official.

The industry expects the government to invite bids under tariff based competitive bidding (TBCB) for power transmission infrastructure projects as it accelerates creation of new power lines and green energy corridors to integrate rising share of renewable power, the official said.

As one of India's leading transmission companies, Sterlite Power Transmission is keen to participate in the bidding process to increase its TBCB market share beyond the current 31 per cent level.

The push to build transmission infrastructure will have a significant, multi-year impact on the order book for all the business lines of the company, the official said, adding his company's revenues rose 37 per cent year on year (y-o-y) to Rs 4,784 crore for the nine-month period ended December 2022.

"The EBIDTA during this period rose 8 per cent y-o-y to nearly Rs 950 crore while the cash position has improved 4.8 times to Rs 1,047 crore y-o-y for the corresponding period," the official said.

Sterlite Power Transmission recently commissioned a major green energy corridor project, Lakadia-Vadodara Transmission Project Limited (LVTPL) in Gujarat with a capacity of 5,000 MW.

With 812 towers spanning seven districts in Gujarat, this transmission corridor is also one of the largest power transmission corridors built in India till date. It has also concluded the sale of its Khargone Transmission Ltd (KTL) asset to IndiGrid at an enterprise value of around Rs 1,497.5 crore.