The government is likely to invite bids for the fifth 4,000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) at Cheyyur in Tamil Nadu soon.
"This will be the first of the four UMPPs the government promised to allot in the current financial year; qualifying bids for this would be invited first," sources in the know said.
The Power Ministry had earlier said it would award four UMPPs in Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh in 2009-10. With only less than three months left in the fiscal, the government is most likely to miss the target.
PFC Consulting, the nodal agency for these power projects, would invite the requests for qualification for these projects and the qualified companies would be asked to submit technical and financial bids.
The government has so far awarded four such projects, out of which three were bagged by Reliance Power--Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya in Jharkhand. Tata Power is developing an UMPP at Mundra in Gujarat.
The Power Ministry which has set a target of adding 78,000 MW during the current Plan (2007-12) plans to raise this capacity to 1,00,000me in the 12th Plan period (2012-17), out of which a substantial amount would be added by these projects.
