Centre may alter ownership of power consortiums
Centre may alter ownership of power consortiums Ownership of power consortiums to be altered by the centre for ultra mega power projects , reports Economic Times.
This move will turn aside controversies like Sasan, which delayed 4,000-mw project by over six months.
The de facto bid d ocument only allows change in the composition of a consortium once a time during the bidding process. Any alteration in the bid document which is mute on change in the ownership of power consortiums, is up to 30 days before the expiry of the bid deadline or before the request for proposal (RFP) stage.
It is learnt that, inter-ministerial group (IMG) will adapt change in the new bid document based on their recommendations.
IMG opines that, even if there is change in ownership at any time, except from 30 days before bid deadline to issue of letter of intent (LoI) to the successful bidder, bids of consortiums should be kept valid. If conflicts of interest with other bidders are nullified, only then such reformulation will be conceded.
There is danger of intricacy if this move is considered, similar to what happened in the Sasan project. Over allegations of misrepresentation, consortium’s bid was cancelled over allegations of misrepresentation.
Fostering the novel standard of bid document, will aid flexibility to the government to abate the bidding process or invite bids from the remaining responsive bidders in case the successful bidder`s bid is declared invalid. There is flexibility, to look at any other alternative course of action.
However, bidding for Sasan and Mundra UMPPs is complete but, bidding for the Krishnapatnam and Tilaiya projects is expected by November 2007 in new format.
It is learnt that, in the case of Krishnapatnam UMPP, Power Finance Corporation is negotiating with nine successful bidders at the RFP stage to agree to the changes in the bid document so projects are awarded during the current fiscal.
