The government has decided to invite bids for the next Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) on March 15. The 4,000-Mw multi-crore project in Chattisgarh would be the fifth UMPP to be awarded by the government to a private power developer.
“We have finalised the date for issuing the Request for Qualification (RFQ) bids for the Chhattisgarh UMPP as March 15,” said a senior official of the power ministry, who did not want to be identified. The Rs 16,000-crore project will come up at Sarguja district in Chhattisgarh.
The last UMPP was awarded to Tilaiya in Jharkhand last year. The letter of intent was issued to Reliance Power on February 12, 2009.
UMPPs are the centre-piece of the government’s attempts to add over 50,000 Mw of power generation capacity through nine such projects that would be developed on a Build, Own and Operate (BOO) basis through rate-based competitive bidding by private power companies. Most of this capacity is expected to come up over the Twelfth Plan period starting 2012.
The government has so far awarded four UMPPs, at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Mundra in Gujarat and Tilaiya in Jharkhand. Barring the Mundra project, which was awarded to Tata Power, the remaining three were given to Anil Dhirubhai Ambani-controlled Reliance Power.
To restrict allocation of projects to a single developer, the government has decided to limit the number of UMPPs that can be developed by a company at any given point in time, to three. The decision, taken in a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in January this year, has barred Reliance Power from bidding for any more UMPPs until it finishes work on any of the three ongoing projects.
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Chattisgarh Sarguja Power, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) floated as a wholly-owned subsidiary by Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for implementing the UMPPs, is facilitating the development of the Sarguja UMPP. This includes tying-up of inputs, coal and water linkages and obtaining clearances for the project.
The coal ministry has allocated two blocks – Puta Parogia (692 million tonnes) and Pindarakhi (421 mt) – of South Eastern Coalfields Ltd for the project. The state government has allocated 135 million cubic metres of water for the project from the Rehar river.
The site for the project is located near Salka and Khameria villages in Udaypur tehsil in the northern district of Chattisgarh. Around 2,500 acres of land from 11 villages is being acquired for the project. The nearest railway station at Bishrampur is located 30 km from the project site, while the nearest airport at Raipur is 300 km away.
While half of the power generated from the 4,000 Mw UMPP would be procured by Chattisgarh, another 1,000 Mw of electricity will go to Maharashtra. The remaining power would be procured by Gujarat (425 Mw), MP (275 Mw), Goa (200 Mw), Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (50 Mw each).