Sector majors shy away from bidding for transmission projects.

Three companies pulled out of auction for the Rs. 400-crore Maheshwaram power transmission project. This is the second time in a week that transmission companies did not bid for projects despite qualifying.

The qualified bidders for the Maheshwaram project were state-owned Power Grid Corporation, Essel Infra, Sterlite Grid, Kalpataru Transmission, CLP India and a consortium of Tata Power and Tata Realty. Of these, only Sterlite, Power Grid and Kalpataru bid.

Larsen & Toubro recently pulled out of auctions for the Rs 823 crore Chhattisgarh A, Rs 1,976 crore Chhattisgarh B and Rs 863 crore Sipat transmission projects. European major Isolux also did not bid for two of the three projects. Jindal Power, too, had qualified for two projects but did not bid for either.

The winners of the Chhatisgarh A and B projects are likely to be named by Power Finance Corporation next Tuesday.

The investment expected on these four lines is Rs 4,000 crore. This was the first tranche of projects to go under the hammer after Power Minister Piyush Goyal said the government would increase transmission capacity to fulfill the National Democratic Alliance’s promise of universal, uninterrupted electricity. This was also the second major investment sought from the private sector after bidding for two ultra mega power projects failed last year.

“Stalled projects are still a major contributor to delayed revenue and lower profitability for Indian companies. Most industrial capacities are underutilised due to lack of demand,” said Rathin Basu, country president, Alstom India & South Asia.

BS