21 firms interested in Budhi Gandaki

Kathmandu: Twenty-one firms from Nepal, India, China, the US and Iceland have shown interest in developing the 600 MW Budhi Gandaki project for which the Department of Electricity Development (DoED) issued a global tender earlier this year based on a cabinet decision last December.

A similar global tender had attracted only three firms last year. The government decided to go for a re-tender after all three proposals were judged sub-standard.

'Twenty-one firms have bought Request For Proposal (RFP) forms so far,' said DoED Director General Sriranjan Lacoul.

On Monday, DoED held a pre-bid meeting with representatives of the firms in Kathmandu. The firms are required to submit their RFPs by March 24, after which the Ministry of Water Resources will evaluate the proposals.

The government is seeking to develop the storage project under Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model under the Hydropower Development Policy, 2001. Nepalese firms that have purchased the Rs 20,000 RFP forms so far are Green Ventures Renewables, IL&FS Nepal Infrastructure Development Company and SinoHydro Corporation.

Among the Indian firms are Tata Power, AES, Athena Projects, Continental Construction, JSW Energy, KSK Energy Ventures, Maytas, Moser Baer, Nagarjuna Construction, Puducherry Power, Sun Group, Tehri Hydro, Triton Energy, and Universal Empire.

China's Gezhouba Group and Chengdu Hydroelectric Investigation & Design Institute have also purchased the RFP. Also, Hillsdale Group of Alexandria, USA, and Reykjavik Energy Invest of Iceland have purchased the forms.