Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) has reported the winning of an order valued at over Rs.495 crore from NTPC, related to the Rammam hydropower project in West Bengal.
In a stock exchange notification, RVNL said that it has won the mandate of project execution agency (PEA) for execution of balance civil and hydro-mechanical works of barrage complex including part HRT (head race tunnel) package of the 3×40-mw Rammam hydropower project Stage-III, coming up in Darjeeling district, West Bengal.
The order, valued at Rs.495.15 crore is scheduled for completion in 66 months, RVNL said, without giving any further details.
Project details
According to information available from government reports, the Rammam-III hydropower project is a run-of-river scheme on River Rammam, with an installed capacity of 120 mw coming from three units of 40-mw each. The project is being implemented by NTPC Hydro Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTPC Ltd.
The project originally approved in September 2006 with expected commissioning date of March 2012. However, due to delays arising from various factors, the commissioning date was revised to September 2019 and further to December 2024. Given that RVNL’s order discussed in this story has a gestation period of five and a half-years, the project is likely to commission only by December 2029.
Re-award of contract
It is learnt that the contract now awarded to RVNL which is for balance civil and hydro-mechanical works of barrage complex including part HRT (head race tunnel) package, represents the unfinished portion of the contract awarded to a consortium of Simplex Infrastructures Ltd and Apex-Encon Project Pvt Ltd, in September 2014. After Apex-Encon Project turned insolvent, the work was being continued by Simplex for some time. However, it is learnt that Simplex Infrastructures Ltd also encountered financial stress and was dissociated from the contract, now awarded to RVNL.
Other contractors
According to information available with T&D India, SEW Infrastructure Ltd is associated with the Rammam hydropower project as contractor for civil and hydro-mechanical works of powerhouse and part HRT (head race tunnel). In 2015, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) was awarded the contract for engineering, procurement, manufacturing and erection and commissioning of hydro generating sets and associated electro-mechanical works for the Rammam-III (3×40-mw) project.
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Featured photograph (source: NTPC) is for representation only
