In a rarity, PGCIL pulls out of bidding

For the three big ticket transmission projects that went under the hammer this week - state owned Power Grid, for the first time in 5 years - did not bid for one after qualifying for all. For Chhattisgarh A (Rs 823 crore) the qualified ones are Adani Power and Sterlite Grid whereas PGCIL has bid along with Adani, Sterlite Grid, Essel Infra and Kalpataru Power for Chhattisgarh B (Rs 1,976 crore). The third projects Sipat (Rs 863 crore) has received bids from PGCIL, Adani Power, Jindal Power, Sterlite Grid and Kalpataru Power. Among the others who pulled out after qualifying are L&T and European infra major Isolux. Sector experts point out that lack of level playing field in the power transmission sector is pushing out major players. PGCIL, apart from being nominated for sensitive projects also participates in tariff based bidding of key transmission projects. It has close to 98 per cent share in the transmission market.