Technical bid for Rajpura thermal project opens, financial bid will open on December 16
GAGANDEEP AHUJA
Thursday, 11 December 2008
PATIALA: Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) on Thursday has opened the lone bid of Lanco Infratech the 1,320-MW Rajpura thermal power project.

Nabha Power Limited, a special purpose vehicle of Rajpura Thermal Plant of Punjab for Punjab state electricity board has opened the lone bid submitted by Lanco Infratech.

PSEB sources said the bid was in two parts one is technical bid and another is financial bid. Financial bid will be opened on December 16. The technical bid has contained the surety bond of 50 crores along with other technical documents, said sources.

PSEB has formed two special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and has floated two companies under the name of Nabha Power Limited and Talwandi Sabo Power Limited. Anurag Aggarwal, member (finance), PSEB, has been made their chairman-cum-managing director (CMD). After opposition from local farmers, the Punjab government has decided to scrap the Nabha thermal plant project and instead proposed a similar plant in Rajpura.

Besides CMD, bid was opened in the presence of members of committee constituted by Punjab government comprising two representatives from Punjab government from Power and finance departments. The three others members were from PSEB.

The committee will examine the technicalities of the Company besides authenticating the surety bond etc.

The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) on Wednesday has approved the proposal of the PSEB to open the lone bid received for the 1,320-MW Rajpura thermal power project from Lanco Infrastructure Limited.

PSERC allowed this under Clause 5.7, which specifically states that the process of procurement could be carried forward even if the number of qualified bidders was less than two. Accordingly, the commission ruled that Lanco be allowed to continue with the bidding process with the direction that the letter of intent would be issued only after seeking its approval.

It also ruled that Lanco had adopted a transparent process of bidding in accordance with guidelines and as such did not violate Section 63 of the Electricity Act, which states that the commission will adopt the tariff if such tariff is determined through a transparent process of bidding.

Earlier, the PSEB had approached the commission through Nabha Power Limited, which had been formed to oversee the entire bidding process.