The two proposed thermal power plants in the Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh, which are already behind schedule two years, seem to be in the doldrums.
While the fate of the 1,320-Mw Karchhna plant, where Jaypee Power had emerged as the lowest tariff-based bidder in November 2008, hangs in the balance, UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) today extended the financial bid date for the Bara plant to February 18. This is the fifth time the corporation has delayed bid date for the 1,980-Mw plant.
This has seriously dented the state government’s plans to augment its power generation capacity by 10,000 Mw in the current Eleventh Five-Year Plan.
The bid date for the Bara plant is getting deferred due to lack of interest among the private companies. Nine companies — NTPC, Indiabulls, JP, Lanco, GVK, L&T, Adani, Reliance and Isolux — are in fray for the project.
The government wants to set up the two projects based on energy-efficient Super Critical Technology to tide over the energy crisis in the state, which regularly witnesses demand and supply gap of almost 2,000 Mw, despite import of power from the central sector to the tune of 3,000 Mw daily.
For Karchhna, Jaypee had quoted the lowest tariff of Rs 2.97 per unit than Reliance Power, Adani and Lanco.
However, since this tariff was higher by almost 37 paise than the bids of Reliance and Lanco — which were rejected in earlier bidding for being steeper — the issue is pending before a high-level committee chaired by the state chief secretary.
Earlier, the state government was awaiting the outcome of the 4,000-Mw Tilaiya Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) in Jharkhand, where Reliance has emerged winner quoting the lowest tariff of Rs 1.77 per unit.
The government was hoping that the bidders for Tilaiya would also quote on the higher side, but now since it is Rs 1.20 lower than the lowest bid for Karchna, UPPCL is in a quandary.
Besides, the private investors are apparently looking forward to the outcome of the Karchhna project, before they bid for Bara.
“The issue of Karchhna, whether to seek fresh bidding or to accept the quoted tariffs, is to be decided by the high-level committee,” a senior UPPCL official told Business Standard.
