Faced with poor response, the Centre has cancelled the bids for the two proposed ultra mega power plants (UMPPs) which were to come up in Odisha and Tamil Nadu. Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday that the process had to be called off as there was no point in stretching the bid date unnecessarily.
Funding issues raised by the bankers was also another reason behind the move. “Unfortunately we did not get enough bids, we have had to scrap the process, its a process which was initiated before this government came in, I thought it was not prudent to keep extending the date without any possible solution,” Goyal said. The Minister was speaking at a conference to unveil a pocket book on the six-month achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government in the power, coal and renewable sectors.
The private firms, which had participated in the first round of bidding for two 4,000 MW each UMPP in Odisha and Tamil Nadu withdrew their bids citing difficulties in securing finances for these proposed projects. Power Ministry is reviewing the situation and may soon appoint an expert panel that will examine the documents to determine if the methodology adopted at the time of tendering these projects was fair.
“The two bids have been scrapped for different reasons, one of the projects received a single tender and a nation does not benefit most with a single tender bid and the other due to problem of coal company and electricity company being two different entities which is not permitted in the current scheme of things,” Goyal said. However, he added that the Government is reviewing the entire situation and experts are being consulted. “We are consulting experts in this field and may soon be setting up an expert group to examine the documents to ensure that we are being fair,” Goyal said.