Close on the heels of a mega transmission order win,Power Grid Corporation (PGCIL) has emerged as the lowest bidder for a Rs 1,400 crore transmission mega package,beating L&T,Sterlite and four other private sector competitors. PGCIL emerged L1 (lowest bidder) after having put in a quote of Rs 119 crore (evaluated levelised tariff for 35 years) for the two transmission packages in the inter-state Vemagiri power transmission project being developed through the tariff-based competitive bidding route. Financial bids for this package,under which the transmission service provider to establish and run the 765kV transmission system under the BOOM (build-own-operate-maintain) model,were opened on Wednesday. The proposed Vemagiri transmission system aims at creating power evacuation infrastructure associated with a series of gas-based power plants coming up in Andhra Pradesh. The project (referred to as Vemagiri Area - Package A) involves setting up of one 765kV line from the Vemagiri pooling station to Khammam and another 765kV line from Khammam to Hyderabad. L&T came in second after PGCIL,with a Rs 154 crore bid,followed by Ind-barat (Rs 184 crore),IVRCL (Rs 208 crore),Sterlite (Rs 229 crore),Spains Elecnor (Rs 257 crore) and NCC (Rs 269 crore). Just last week,the state-owned transmission firm had emerged as the lowest bidder for another mega Rs 1,025 crore transmission system package. PGCILs aggressive bid comes at a time when public sector firms in the power sector have been under fire for consistently losing out to their private counterparts when it comes to bidding for key projects.
