Transfer of Sasan project to bidder held up: Govt

New Delhi, Aug 20 (UNI) The government today said that legal and contractual wrangles have held up the transfer of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)--Sasan Power Limited (SPL) to the bidder identified for implementation of the 4,000 MW Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project in Madhya Pradesh.

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), set up for facilitating expeditious decisions in all cases concerning Ultra Mega Power projects (UMPPs), examined the matter relating to the award of the project.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the EGoM has decided that the procurer should cancel Letter of Intent issued by Globeleq-Lanco consortium, as it was not qualified even at the RfQ stage and its response to the RfQ was void ab-initio.

It was also decided that the procurer should return the Bid Bond of the consortium after deducting a sum of Rs one crore and hold negotiations with the remaining bidders and seek their final bid for levelised tariff.

SPL, accordingly received revised offers from the remaining valid bidders of which the bid of Reliance Power Limited, offering a levellised tariff of Rs 1.19616 per kilo watt hour as the lowest.

The Power Ministry had launched an initiative for the development of coal based UMPPs each of about 4,000 MW capacity. These projects are being developed on a Buld, Own and Operate basis and the project developer is selected through a tariff based competitive bidding process.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in consulation with the states had identified the following locations for these UMPPs, Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Munda in Gujarat, Krishnapatnam in Andhra, Akaltara in Chhatisgarh, Tadri in Karnataka, Girye in Maharashtra, Cheyyur in Tamil ANdu, Sundergarh in Orissa and Tilaiya in Jharkand.

UNI