Super-critical boilers: Ansaldo terms disqualification by NTPC ‘unjust

Gammon India-owned Italian power boiler manufacturer Ansaldo Caldaie has termed its disqualification by NTPC in the tender for the supply of supercritical boilers “unjust”.

 The tender is for the supply of eleven sets of (coal-saving high pressure) supercritical boilers for power projects that would come up in five locations. The tender is being handled on behalf of the Ministry of Power by the public sector power utility NTPC.

Ansaldo's name was not among the three bidders qualified on Friday to participate in the commercial bidding round.

Although NTPC has not cited any grounds as yet for not qualifying Ansaldo, the Italian company has learnt that it has been left out of the race because of what it calls a minor technical reason — that it has not designed the ‘evaporator' of the boiler that was offered as the reference operating plant in the tender.

“It is like saying that an automobile manufacturer is disqualified for not designing and making tyres,” Ansaldo has said in a press note. Ansaldo feels that NTPC has taken a “very convoluted view” of the qualifying requirements, “obviously to restrict the field to two or three players who are in consortium with foreign manufacturers.”