Award of Rs. 49,200 cr Odisha, Tamil Nadu UMPPs pushed to June.

Business Standard reported that the award of two 4,000 MW Ultra Mega Power Projects entailing mega investment of over INR 49,200 crore has been pushed by over 2 and a half months to post May, with the shortlisted companies having requested more time for submission of price bids.

Power Finance Corporation, the power ministry's arm managing the bidding for the UMPPs, had in December shortlisted 9 companies for Odisha UMPP and 8 companies for the Tamil Nadu UMPP in the Request for Qualification stage.

The Request for Proposal were to be submitted by February 26th.

A senior PFC executive said that 'All the companies together sought extension of ten weeks for RFP submission for Odisha project and eight weeks for the Tamil Nadu UMPP, arguing market condition is not ripe for such huge investments. The extension has been granted.'

He added the projects are now likely to be awarded only after the general elections in May.

9 companies are in the race for the Odisha UMPP including NTPC Limited, TATA Power, NHPC, Adani Power, JSW Energy, Jindal Power, Sterlite Infraventures, CLP India and Larsen & Toubro.

8 companies including Adani Power, CLP India, GMR Energy, Jindal Power, JSW Energy, L&T, NTPC and Sterlite Infraventures are to submit price bids for the Tamil Nadu project.

The Odisha UMPP, to come up in Bedabahal in Sundargarh district, is a pit-head project based on domestic coal to be sourced from allocated captive coal blocks, with an expected investment of around INR 25,000 crore.

Cheyyur UMPP is a coastal project based on imported coal to be set up in Cheyyur district, with an investment of over INR 24,200 crore. The Cheyyur project would be the country's third coastal UMPP after Mundra in Gujarat and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh operated by Reliance Power.

STEEL GURU