Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL) has clinched the Ghatampur power transmission project under the tariff-based competitive bidding route, marking its first presence in Uttar Pradesh.
In a stock exchange filing, ATL announced that it has received the letter of intent from REC Transmission Projects Company Ltd to develop the Ghatampur power transmission project using the BOOM (build, own, operate and maintain) mode under a 35-year concession period. RECTPCL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rural Electrification Corporation, was the bid process coordinator for the project. Accordingly, ownership of the shell company “Ghatampur Transmission Ltd” will be transferred to ATL.
The transmission project involves around 900 ckm of transmission lines at 765kV and 400kV levels. Some major 765kV lines include Ghatampur-Agra, Agra-Greater Noida and Ghatampur-Hapur.
The project essentially aims at creating evacuation infrastructure for the upcoming 1,980-mw coal-fired Ghatampur power project in Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The power project with supercritical parameters is promoted by Neyveli Uttar Pradesh Power Ltd, a 51:49 joint venture between NLC India Ltd and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd. NLC India was formerly known as Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd.
The transmission project involves around 900 ckm of transmission lines at 765kV and 400kV levels. Some major 765kV lines include Ghatampur-Agra, Agra-Greater Noida and Ghatampur-Hapur.
With this project, the cumulative transmission network of Adani Transmission will reach around 12,500 ckm, out of which 9,000 ckm are currently under operation.
Aggressive bidding
It is learnt from industry sources that at the RfQ stage, there were four bidders– Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, Adani Transmission, Kalpataru Power Transmission and Sterlite Grid — in the race for the Ghatampur transmission project. However, only the first three moved on to the RfP stage. An industry source said that competition was effectively reduced to just two contenders—PGCIL and Adani Transmission. Both bid aggressively and it is learnt that the online reverse bidding process continued through the night with both PGCIL and Adani trying to outbid the other. Adani Transmission ultimately emerged as the lowest bidder.
Photo Caption: File photograph of the groundbreaking ceremony of the 1,980-mw Ghatampur power project held at the plant site in October 2016. The Ghatampur transmission project involves creating of 400kV and 765kV infrastructure to evacuate power from this upcoming generation station. (Photo: NLC India website)
