Reliance Power close to bagging Krishnapatnam UMPP

After successfully bidding for the 4,000 MW Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) in Madhya Pradesh, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power Limited is close to bagging the 4,000 MW Krishnapatnam UMPP in Andhra Pradesh as it has emerged as the lowest bidder outbidding engineering firm Larsen and Tubro and the Sterlite group.

Official sources said that in the meeting held on October 8, the financial bids were opened by the nodal agency Power Finance Corporation after completing the technical evaluation.

Although, the bids were to be opened on November 14, it was felt that the exercise should be completed earlier to send a strong signal to investors about the intentions of the Government in going ahead with such critical projects.

Sources said that Reliance Power bid Rs. 2.336 a unit as the levelised tariff for 25 years, while Larsen & Toubro quoted Rs. 2.68 a unit. Sterlite Industries quoted a much higher tariff of Rs. 4.81 a unit. The letter of intent is likely to be awarded to the lowest bidder — Reliance Power — on November 17 after an evaluation of the same by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by the Union Power Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Reliance would run the Sasan project on domestic coal while the Krishnapatnam project is to be operated on imported coal. The project will require an investment of more than Rs. 16,000 crore and it is likely to become operational in the early years of the XII Plan.