Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has extended the last date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) and date of opening of bids for forming a joint venture (JV) company for selection, allotment, development and mining of coal blocks to November 20, 2009.
Earlier, the last date for submission of EoI was September 30, 2009. The selection of company involves a four tier procedure. PSEB will have a share of 51 per cent in the JV formed with the successful bidder.
Further, mining shall start in three years from the date of allotment of mining blocks.
One of the senior official of PSEB said, “We have extended the last date for submission of EoI owing to some concerns raised by the developers during pre-bid conference held in the third week of this month. The developer raised concerns over clause pertaining to close mining and stringent penalty incorporated in the document. Already, we have send request to the board for relaxation of norms and have extended the last date to November 20, 2009 so that the bidder can submit their revised EoI.”
It is worth noting that currently, PSEB has got coal linkages of 13.2 million tonnes from the coal ministry for 1,980-Mw Talwandi Sabo Thermal Power Project and 1,320-Mw Rajpura Thermal Power Project.
But since the board has ambitious plans to expand its generation capacity with 2,640-Mw Gidderbaha Thermal Power Project and 500 -Mw extension of Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, Bhatinda, more coal — total of 31.2 million tonnes per annum — is required.
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To achieve this goal, PSEB intends to form a JV with a company which will study and identify suitable coal blocks, follow up with the coal ministry, railways, Geological Survey of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests and acquire necessary mining licence.
The company shall be responsible for engineering, procurement, construction and operation and maintenance of coal blocks.
It shall deploy washery/benefaction plant so that the ash content in coal is below 34 per cent as per the directions of the environment ministry.
Earlier, during the pre-bid conference held in mid-September, 13 companies participated in the pre-bid conference and showed interest in forming JV Company with PSEB.
The firms that participated in pre-bid conference are Eastern Minerals and Trading Agency, Indiabulls Power Services Ltd, GS Atwal & Co, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd, Essel Mining & Industries Ltd, Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd, Adhunik Metaliks Ltd, Calcutta Industrial Supply Corporation, Sunflag Iron & Steel Co Ltd, Welspun Urja India Ltd, Sadbhav Engineering Ltd, Thriveni earth Movers Pvt Ltd and Sterlite Industries (I) Ltd.
PSEB has also engaged M/s ICRA Management Consulting Services Limited as consultant which has 15 years of experience in this field in India and abroad and shall provide required inputs in evaluation of bids. Officials in PSEB disclosed that formation of Joint Venture has been synchronized with expansion capacity so that the coal shall be available to all proposed Thermal Plants much before these are commissioned.