Goyal: UMPP soon revised standard bidding document

The revised bidding norms for ultra mega power projects would be finalised very soon, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. “The Pratyush Sinha committee has recently submitted its report (on bid documents for UMPPs). Final consultation and final deliberation are going on and will be finalised very soon after which we will restart the process of bidding for UMPPs,” he said on the sidelines of an event by Bharat Chamber of Commerce here.

The Government had tasked the committee to suggest modification in the standard bidding document following withdrawal of all the qualified private developers from the final round of the bidding process of the proposed 4,000 MW UMPPs in Tamil Nadu and Odisha, citing difficulty in securing bank finance due to flaws in the bidding norms.

A meeting is likely to be held on July 8 with the industry, bankers and other stakeholders. Goyal stated that his government was committed for 24x7 power for all by 2019.“The Govt is committed to provide power to all households in the country from urban to rural by 2019 and making all out efforts to accomplish it,”  Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said in an interactive session organised by Coal Consumers’ Association of India (CCAI) in Kolkata.

The minister emphasised on generating more and more clean and green energy from sources like solar, wind, tidal and bio-mass that is eco-friendly and said, his ministry is effortlessly encouraging it by providing subsidy and other promotional activities.Goyal further said, “The coal production in the country by Coal India limited (CIl) has increased by 12% by February 2015 since the new Govt came to power and the target is to increase it by 29 million tonnes in the next 10 months.”