Bid process for Orissa UMPP begins this week

The government will kick-start the bidding process for the 4,000 mw Orissa power project this week, undeterred by the setback suffered by the Chhattisgarh ultra mega power project that faces uncertainty over allocation of captive coal blocks.

Power Finance Corporation, the nodal agency for ultra mega power projects (UMPP) projects in the country, will invite pre-qualification bids (request for qualification or RFQ) for the project on Friday. Bidders can submit their RFQs till July 27 and the process will be completed by July 30, a PFC official said. “The captive coal mines attached with Orissa project have got all the clearances and there are no environment and forest related issues with these blocks,” said an official with the power ministry. “We will put the bidding process for Orissa UMPP on fast track and hope to award the project by October-November this year,” he said, requesting anonymity.

The 4000 MW pit head power project will need an investment of about Rs 20,000 crore. Orissa Integrated Power (OIPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of PFC and the shell company for the Orissa project, has already got allocation of the Ib valley coal fields located about 30-40 km from the project site.

The fate of the Chhattisgarh UMPP still hangs in balance. PFC had to extend the last date for submission of RFQs for the project by a couple of months to get more clarity on allocation of captive coal blocks. The Hasdeo Arand coal field attached with the UMPP has been declared a “no go” area for mining by the environment and coal ministries.

The power ministry plans to set up nine such plants, with four projects at pithead and five in coastal locations, to help meet the electricity generation target of 100,000 MW for the 12th Plan period (2012-17). The government has already allotted four projects of which three have been bagged by Reliance Power in Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand). The fourth, at Mundra in Gujarat, has been bagged by Tata Power. The other three UMPPs, for which bids are yet to be invited, include Tadri (Karnataka), Cheyyur (Tamil Nadu) and Girye or a new site in Maharashtra. The UMPPs alone could add over 36,000 MW of capacity. The UMPPs are expected to bail out the government, which is struggling to meet its capacity addition target.