PowerGrid lowest bidder for 2 Gadarwara projects.

State-run Power Grid Corporation of India has emerged as the best bidder for transmission projects Gadarwara A and B worth Rs. 6,000 crore, beating three private companies, two people close to the development told ET.

In the bids that opened recently, PGCIL was the lowest bidder for Gadarwara A projects at Rs. 290 crore and for Gadarwara B with a bid of Rs. 256.8 crore, beating Sterlite Grid, Essel Infra and Adani Group. PGCIL's bids were lower by 12% and 17% respectively in the two projects than the second lowest bids placed by Sterlite Grid in both the cases, the people cited earlier said.

Gadarwara A and B transmission lines will be primarily used to evacuate electricity generated at NTPC's power plant at Gadarwara in Narsinghpur district in Madhya Pradesh. Bids for transmission projects are increasingly turning highly competitive as companies are trying to grab orders at a time when order books have been under pressure due to economic slowdown.

Eleven firms had shown initial interest in the two projects but seven of them pulled out, leaving just four to place bids.

Industry executives said that the private players and foreign companies shied away from bidding as they feared aggressive bids from PGCIL, which had bid 40-70% lower and bagged two projects last year - Unchahar Transmission and a transmission projects under Northern Region Strengthening System for the northern grid.

The government had awarded Rs. 36,000 crore worth projects to PGCIL in December 2014 amid complaints by private firms regarding stiff competition from the state-run company, which they believe have more flexibility over pricing given its portfolio of projects.

In 2011, PGCIL bagged the Vemagiri-Khamman transmission line, after putting in an aggressive bid. This project faced delay and later PGCIL even requested deferral of its execution.


ET