State-run NTPC Ltd may emerge a successful bidder for the upcoming 4,000 Mw Ultra Mega Power Projects, provided government pays heed to the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committee.
“Early steps need to be taken to remove the bottlenecks faced by NTPC in the competitive bidding process,” a report of the committee suggested. The committee observed that the country’s largest power producer was not a successful bidder in any of the Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs).
NTPC while informing the committee said that the limiting factor in participating at the competitive bidding process for the UMPPs are the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines. The CVC guidelines do not allow commercial secrecy of the bidding offers submitted to NTPC by the vendors, which in turn proves a hindrance in the bidding process.
Before submitting bids for the power project, NTPC invites bids from its vendors who supply equipment for the project in question. NTPC decides its bid on the basis of lowest available price of power equipment supplied by vendors. According to the present CVC guidelines, this is an open and transparent process and no secrecy can be maintained by any public sector company in such matters.
Out of the three UMPPs allotted by the government, two have been bagged by Reliance Power (Sasan and Krishnapatnam) and one by Tata Power (Mundra). The financial bids for the UMPP at Tilaiya in Jharkhand would be invited on December 29,2008.
Government plans to add 78,577 Mw capacity of electricity in the current XIth Five Year Plan (2007-12).