NTPC reissues tender for bulk procurement of 660 MW boilers

After scrapping the controversial tender for 660 MW super-critical boilers, state-run NTPC, on Friday, issued a fresh set of bid documents to source 11 sets of boilers, for five coal based thermal power projects, that are scheduled for commissioning during the 12th Five Year Plan period. The Board at its meeting held on Monday, decided to scrap the original tender and call for fresh bids, after the bid submitted by the consortium of L&T Power and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) was disqualified on technical grounds, which left only BHEL in the fray. NTPC has asserted that MHI should have formed a consortium with L&aT and not L&T Power, which is a subsidiary and does not fulfill the criteria set forth in the bid documents.

NTPC, in October 2009, invited two separate global competitive bids for sourcing 11 sets of boiler and steam turbine generators. BHEL and a consortium of L&T Power and MHI submitted bids for the boiler package and five companies -- BHEL, L&T Power-MHI, Bharat Forge-Alstom, Toshiba-JSW, Power Machine -- submitted bids for the turbine generator package. Two sets of boilers each for NTPC`s Mouda super thermal power project (STPP), stage-II, Solapur STPP, Damodar Valley Corporation`s Raghunathpur TPP, phase-II and Meja Urja Nigam Private Limited`s (MUNPL) Meja TPP and three boiler units for Bhartiya Rail Bijlee Company Limited`s (BRBCL) Nabinagar STPP are to procured through this bulk bidding process. MUNPL and BRBCL are the joint venture enterprise of NTPC with India Railways and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited. These projects, being granted the Mega Power status, supplies of goods for this package shall be eligible for deemed export benefit.

Setting down strict qualification criteria, NTPC has clarified that in case of a bidder who wants to bid through its subsidiary company, then the subsidiary firm of the steam generator manufacturer should be registered in India, under the Companies Act 1956, for manufacturing of supercritical steam generator sets. If the subsidiary is registered as a public limited company, then it should have obtained certificate for commencement of business in India as on the date of techno-commercial bid opening.

Thus, MHI and L&T would now need to rejig their collaboration agreements to bid for this package, however, this time it may face a far tough competition as a few new players are expected to bid for this Rs 10,000 crore boiler deal. Pune-based engineering solution provider, Thermax, which has recently signed a joint venture with Babcock & Wilcox for manufacturing of boilers upto 3,000 MW capacity, is also likely to bid for the revised boiler tender. The bid documents for this contract can be purchased on submission of a written application and a non-refundable payment of Rs 22,500 or USD 500, till July 30, 2010. The last date of submission of bids for this package is August 25, 2010.