Sasan: E&Y to submit report on Lanco this week

Ernst & Young (E&Y), the 4,000 mw Sasan project bid process consultants, would submit its report on Lanco-Globeleq certificates to Power Finance Corporation (PFC) this week.

PFC, the nodal agency for implementing ultra mega power projects, had asked E&Y to verify the certificates, which the Lanco-Globeleq consortium had furnished to qualify to the bid for the Rs 16,000 crore pithead coal-based plant in Madhya Pradesh.

Lanco-Globeleq bagged the project by quoting the lowest bid of Re 1.196 on December 28, 2006. This was the lowest of the nine bids received to develop the project, and brought the Hyderabad-based Lanco to the national stage.

The project was mired in controversy since the change of partners in consortium from Lanco-Globeleq to Lanco-Jindal.

Last week, E&Y asked Lanco Infratech to clarify whether it used the credentials of its bid partner Globeleq Singapore's parent (Globeleq UK) to qualify for the Sasan project.

The Lanco clarifications dated April 3 show misrepresentation, said an official associated with the Sasan project.

However, Lanco officials have been claiming that the consortium never submitted any financial document for Globeleq Singapore and that all submissions were in compliance with bid conditions.

The bid evaluation committee headed by Deepak Parekh, chairman HDFC, has already said that it wanted the consortium's "amicable extrication" from the project.