Rajpura Power Plant Cabinet clears single bid
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 20
The Punjab Cabinet has cleared the single private bid received for the 1,320-MW Rajpura Thermal Power Plant after taking into account a report of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) stating the project will be delayed by 270 days in case of a re-bid.

The Cabinet meeting, which was chaired by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, also gave its nod to the revised tariff offer of Rs 3.30 per unit, which was arrived at after negotiations with Lanco Infratech by a committee headed by Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh. Lanco had earlier offered a bid of Rs 3.38 per unit.

A government release here claimed that the government was ushering in a “power revolution” by generating additional capacity of 6,480 MW to make Punjab a power surplus state within next three years by setting up four super thermal plants at Talwandi Sabo (1,980 MW), Goindwal Sahib (540 MW), Rajpura (1,320MW) and Gidderbaha (2,640 MW).

Sources disclosed that the government was not in favour of delaying the Rajpura project at any cost as it had made the setting up of the four thermal plants a major “development” issue prior to the Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier, the PSEB facilitated this decision by claiming that it would have to go in for the stipulated nine-month long process in case there was a fresh re-bid for the Rajpura plant as per the Ministry of Power norms.

The board, which had also been asked to submit its views on all possible scenarios had also submitted that in case the PSEB decided to take up the project itself, it would have to arrange 25 per cent of the Rs 6,500-crore cost as equity besides arranging for a government guarantee for the loan needed. It also claimed that there was no surety that per unit average price would go down in case of a re-bid.

Meanwhile, the PSEB Engineers Association claimed today that the Cabinet decision was against the spirit of competitive bidding. Association president HS Bedi said the offer of Rs 3.30 per unit was still on the higher side. He said Lanco’s bid was 52 paisa per unit higher than that fixed for the Talwandi Sabo project by Sterlite, which too was yet to start work on the ground like Lanco.

“If the government thinks the price offer of Lanco is justifiable it means it is admitting that Sterlite will not put up the Talwandi Sabo plant, which has been awarded to it at a much lower rate”, Bedi said.