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New Delhi: Odisha UMPP bidding is likely to get a lukewarm response as land acquisition issues and lack of clarity on surplus coal usage remain big hurdles for private power generators, industry body APP said on Friday.
"Today looking at the preparedness for Odisha we are not in a position to bid for the project.
"Frankly speaking, I don't think the UMPP (Ultra Mega Power Project) is ready for bidding today because the land acquisition is yet to be done," Director General, APP (Association of Power Producers) Ashok Khurana told reporters here.
He, however, added that the final decision lies with the companies.
An UMPP is normally of 4,000 MW capacity and entails an investment of about Rs 20,000 crore.
Complete land acquisition is likely to take anywhere between six months to a year to complete, Khurana said.
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) had suggested that the government should formulate a surplus coal policy for utilisation of excess coal from the mines allotted for the UMPPs before inviting bids.
Khurana said that the government is yet to come to with the surplus coal policy.
He further added that of the 20 member companies of the APP, only 8-9 will be eligible to bid.
"Of them (the companies which can bid) how many will bid is yet to be seen as no one has seen the final document," he added.
So far, four UMPPs have been allotted of which three -- Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Tilaiyia (Jharkhand) and Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) -- have been bagged by Reliance Power.
Tata Power has already commissioned country's first UMPP at Mundra in Gujarat.
Meanwhile, the 20-member body, representing the private power producing companies, today met Power Ministry Secretary P K Sinha and delibrated on a gamut of issues.
"All the comments which were made by the developers who can bid (for the Odisha UMPP) were considered by the Ministry of Power," Khurana said.
The issues raised by APP in the meeting comprise delay in signing of the PPAs or the Power Purchase Agreements by the states with the companies.
States like Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are yet to sign PPAs for some projects with the companies due to a host of issues.
