Government to bid two UMPPs worth Rs 40,000 crore in a month

The government will initiate bidding of two ultra mega power projects in Orissa and Tamil Nadu worth Rs 40,000 crore in a month's time. However, it has to be seen whether companies will respond to the projects since the bidding will be based on new framework.

On Friday, an empowered group of ministers cleared new bidding norms for power plants.

"We will start bidding of the two ultra mega power projects at Bedhabahal in Orissa and Cheyyur in Tamil Nadu within a month. The minutes of yesterday's meeting are awaited and thereafter is just a matter of time," a senior power ministry official said.

The official said that the project in Orissa will be fired on attached coal blocks, while the one in Tamil Nadu will be an imported coal-based plant.

The government has so far awarded four ultra mega power projects of which only one owned by Tata Power at Mundra in Gujarat is functional. The other three at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Tilaiya in Jharkhand are bagged by Reliance Power.

Sites for 10 more such projects have been identified in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.