NTPC, after scrapping the original tender, is planning to issue a fresh one on Thursday for a Rs 8,800-crore contract for bulk supply of super-critical boilers. The company?s board in its meeting on Monday decided to scrap the original tender and seek fresh bids after L&T Power was disqualified for technical reasons, leaving only Bhel in the race.
Italy?s Ansaldo, which is setting up a boiler manufacturing facility near Hyderabad, is also expected to participate in the fresh bidding process. The company had sought a two-month extension for submitting its bid against the original tender. However, it decided not to submit a bid after NTPC had declined its request.
L&T Power can participate in the fresh bidding process provided it submits parental guarantee from L&T, which has signed a required technological collaboration agreement with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for the manufacturing of super-critical boilers.
NTPC plans to place order for 11 boilers, nine for own projects and two on behalf of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).
These boilers would be installed at its projects envisaged in places like Sholapur, Mauda and Nabinnagar and DVC’s Ragunathpur project.
NTPC rejected L&T Power’s bid on the ground that technological collaboration agreement was signed by the parent company and not by L&T Power. NTPC has also rejected L&T Power’s bid for supply of turbine-generators on the same ground. However, there are still four players in the bidding race for supply of turbine-generators and NTPC has decided to go ahead with tendering.
The government has put in conditionality of manufacturing facility in India for bidding against tenders issued by NTPC for bulk supply of super-critical equipment.
Private players like L&T, Bharat Forge, JSW and GB Engineering are setting up new facilities in India to manufacture super-critical power equipment to benefit from the government’s policy. Public sector supplier Bhel is also expanding its manufacturing capacity to 20,000 mw a year. It expects to commission the expanded capacity by March 2012.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) granted its approval to the bulk tendering proposal in January last year. NTPC floated tender in October. The last date for the submission of bids was January 28.