Bids for Tilaiya UMPP by November end

Hyderabad: By the end of November, bids for the fourth ultra mega power project (UMPP) at Tilaiaya in Jharkhand will be invited, according to the Union Minister for State for Power, Mr Jairam Ramesh.

Mr Ramesh said that of the three UMPPs, which have been awarded, the Mundra power plant, now under development by Tata Power, is at an advanced stage of implementation and has made progress and has ordered for equipment.

The other two plants at Sasan and Krishnapatnam, won by Reliance Power are at different stages. While the Sasan unit is in the process of finalising plans, the Krishnapatnam has gone a step ahead and has chosen Shanghai Electric for supply of equipment (Though he personally tried to convince Reliance to consider BHEL).

Asked if there are delays in execution of the plant due to difficulty in achieving financial closure due to current economic slowdown, Mr. Ramesh said “it is a fact that developers are finding finances hard to come by.” But felt that they would be able to close them.

On whether the current market conditions are likely to impact the bidding process for new projects, the Minister said “let us wait and see.”

Apart from these projects, UMPPs are being proposed at Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. In addition, the Power Ministry has received another proposal for an UMPP in Andhra Pradesh.

The Union Minister said that he would like more public enterprises to take part in large UMPPs. Referring to the need for greater participation by NTPC and BHEL, he said that he would like NTPC to secure a couple of UMPPs.

Referring to the initiatives on the nuclear power, he said that the Government is in the process of expanding the overall capacity from 4,000 MW now to 20,000 MW by 2020.

There have been offers for participation in nuclear projects from French firm Areva for 1,600 MW reactor, Russia for more reactors as was the case with Koodamkulam and from General Electric and Westinghouse.

In fact, representatives from GE are likely to visit India and Andhra Pradesh early next month to discuss potential of nuclear projects, he said.