Bid deadline for Sasan, Mundra projects extended

The deadline for submission and opening of the bid documents for the Sasan and Mundra ultra mega power projects has been postponed by over two weeks.

Bids for the two projects of 4,000 Mw each, which were to be opened on the 22nd of this month, would now be opened on December 8, ministry officials said. Bids can be submitted anytime before the opening deadline.

They said the reason for the postponement was the delay by the Gujarat government in fixing port and coal handling charges for the Mundra port.

The port is owned by the Adani group and will be the entry port for the coal being imported for the Mundra project.

Officials said as the ministry was keen on awarding both the projects together, it was decided to postpone the Sasan bid opening.

"Both technical and financial bids will be opened on the same day. The final awards will be declared on December 31 as planned," they added.

Regarding other ultra mega power projects, sources indicated that the third project, yet to be awarded, would be the Krishnapatnam project in Andhra Pradesh. The award is expected to be given next April.

Sources said all the clearances for this project are already in place with the initial screening of bidders also being complete. Seventeen bidders have been qualified at the request for qualification stage.

For the other two projects, Tadri in Karnataka and Giriye in Maharashtra, the environmental clearances are yet to come through, sources said.