Upper karnali project : Govt to award licence to bidder offering 12MW free power
Himalayan News Service Kathmandu, January 6:
The government said today it will award the production licence for the 300 MW Upper Karnali Hydro-electricity Project to the bidder offering 12 MW of power free of cost. The government changed its earlier criteria following directives from the Natural Resources Committee, Minister for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said. The parliamentary committee recently instructed the government to award production licences solely on the basis of the highest power offer, he said.
This means the GMR Energy Limited of India, rated best on the overall criteria with 96 percentage points despite its offer of 7.5 MW electricity, will find itself pitted against its closest Indian rival, Chennai-based Larsen and Toubro Limited, which offered 12 MW, but is about 30 percentage points behind GMR in overall assessment. Earlier, the government had selected GMR for the Upper Karnali project on the basis of the points it obtained. As the parliamentary committees directed the government to award the licence to the company with highest bid, GMR still stands to win the licence, according to Karki. "But it will have to raise free energy to 12 MW."
Karki further said the government had decided to stick to one company one project rule, toeing the parliamentary committee's directive. The fate of 400 MW Arun III project will also be decided on the basis of the quantity of power proposed by the bidders, Karki said. The bidder offering 21.9 MW — in this case, India's Jindal Steel and Power Limited — looks a strong contender for this project. And, the government is planning to re-invite bids for the 600 MW Budhi Gandakai project.
If everything goes as planned, the government intends to export most of the 1,300 MW electricity, to be generated from three large-scale hydro-electricity projects, in the pipeline. "We will lay emphasis on export of electricity. We still have the provision that we may purchase 10 per cent of the exportable electricity for domestic use," the minister said.
The minister further said that the government would provide licences to those companies, which agree to pay a deposit of Rs 100,000 per MW. Licence holders failing to initiate construction as per the schedule submitted to the government will have their licences cancelled.
Source: The Himalayan Times, 7 January 2008
The government said today it will award the production licence for the 300 MW Upper Karnali Hydro-electricity Project to the bidder offering 12 MW of power free of cost. The government changed its earlier criteria following directives from the Natural Resources Committee, Minister for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said. The parliamentary committee recently instructed the government to award production licences solely on the basis of the highest power offer, he said.
This means the GMR Energy Limited of India, rated best on the overall criteria with 96 percentage points despite its offer of 7.5 MW electricity, will find itself pitted against its closest Indian rival, Chennai-based Larsen and Toubro Limited, which offered 12 MW, but is about 30 percentage points behind GMR in overall assessment. Earlier, the government had selected GMR for the Upper Karnali project on the basis of the points it obtained. As the parliamentary committees directed the government to award the licence to the company with highest bid, GMR still stands to win the licence, according to Karki. "But it will have to raise free energy to 12 MW."
Karki further said the government had decided to stick to one company one project rule, toeing the parliamentary committee's directive. The fate of 400 MW Arun III project will also be decided on the basis of the quantity of power proposed by the bidders, Karki said. The bidder offering 21.9 MW — in this case, India's Jindal Steel and Power Limited — looks a strong contender for this project. And, the government is planning to re-invite bids for the 600 MW Budhi Gandakai project.
If everything goes as planned, the government intends to export most of the 1,300 MW electricity, to be generated from three large-scale hydro-electricity projects, in the pipeline. "We will lay emphasis on export of electricity. We still have the provision that we may purchase 10 per cent of the exportable electricity for domestic use," the minister said.
The minister further said that the government would provide licences to those companies, which agree to pay a deposit of Rs 100,000 per MW. Licence holders failing to initiate construction as per the schedule submitted to the government will have their licences cancelled.
Source: The Himalayan Times, 7 January 2008
