Government will auction three ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) by March, including Tilaiya and Cheyyur entailing investments of Rs80,000 crore, Power Minister Piyush Goyal has said.
“As regard the bid document for UMPP on domestic coal, we already had inter-ministerial consultations and hopefully in a month's time we will get Cabinet approval for new documents. So I will still try to come out before March with at least two or three UMPPs and may be other two by June,” Goyal told agency.
Asked about the projects, he said: “It will be a mix of old and new UMPPs. For example, in Bihar we have committed to do a UMPP in Banka. Probably we try and bid that out of the State Government. We could consider Tilaiya, Cheyyur in Tamil Nadu and Bedabahal UMPP in Odisha.” The investment for an UMPP of 4,000 MW has been revised from Rs20,000 crore to about Rs27,000 crore each recently on basis of rise in the price of coal and land. The bidding for Tilaiya UMPP in Jharkhand is expected next month as the 18 procurers of power across 10 states from the project have agreed in-principle to accept the termination letter served by Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power.
Reliance Power had served a notice to terminate the contract for the project in April last year due to inordinate delays in land acquisition. Reliance Power, in August 2009, had won rights to set up a 3,960-MW power plant at Hazaribagh in Jharkhand after bidding a levellised tariff of Rs1.77 per unit, but couldn't start work on the project as the State Government had not provided the required land even after more than five years.