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New Delhi: The government has scrapped initial bids received from 20 power companies for setting up the 4,000 MW ultra mega power project in Odisha and will invite fresh bids in the next fortnight.
Soon after finalising the new standard bidding documents (SBDs) for upcoming power plants, including the 4,000 MW capacity ultra mega power projects, Power Ministry will invite preliminary bids for the proposed UMPP in Odisha.
"The earlier bids stand cancelled now as they were invited as per the previous SBDs, so there will be a fresh round of invitation of bids for setting up the UMPPs," a senior power ministry official told PTI.
Power Finance Corporation, the nodal agency for UMPPs in the country, had floated a tender for 4,000 MW UMPP at Bedabahal in Odisha in the year 2010.
Due to lask of environment clearance for captive coal blocks allotted to the project, the proposal for invitation remained suspended and was only revived in August 2011 when 20 industry bigwigs like NTPC, Tata Power, Adani Power, JSW Energy and Jindal Power had shown interest in developing the 4,000 MW UMPP.
But once again the bidding process got delayed due to the framing of new SBDs, which were finalised last month.
Now there will be a fresh round of bidding for the Odisha UMPP and the government is likely to invite initial bids within the next 15 days. Along with the Odisha plant, fresh bids will be invited for the proposed UMPP at Cheyyur in Tamil Nadu.
So far, four UMPPs have been awarded, with Reliance Power bagging three -- Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand)--and Tata Power executing the fourth one at Mundra in Gujarat.
Last month, An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) headed by Defence Minister A K Antony cleared the proposal of tweaking the SBDs for implementing the new Case-II thermal power plants including the 4,000 MW (UMPPs).
UMPPs are coal-based generation projects with an average capacity of 4,000 MW. The new bidding norms will apply to Case-II projects.
Case-I projects are where developers have the choice to decide on location, fuel and technology to be used. In Case-II, the location of the project and fuel to be used are already decided before the start of competitive bidding.
