Final bid submission defers again
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
The final bid submission for the proposed 450 MW Bibiyana Power Plant has been deferred to July 25, raising the prospect of delay in implementation of the government's prioritised project, reports UNB.
Earlier, the closing date for the bid submission was July 15 and now it has been re-fixed as July 25.
This is for the third time that the bid closing date was deferred as May 7 was the first schedule.
However, no official of Power Cell could be reached for comments about the deferment of the date.
The Power Cell, a reform implementation wing of the Power Ministry, invited the international tender for implementing the plant as an independent power producer (IPP) project.
Official sources said so far three international bidders have purchased the request for proposal (RfP) documents to submit their respective technical and financial offers.
But of them only two international bidders looked set to submit their final bids for the proposed plant. Primarily, four bidders-US-based AES Corporation and Chevron, Malaysia-based Powertek Barhad and South Korea-based Kepco-were selected under the prequalification (PQ) process for the project, according to official sources.
But Kepco later pulled itself out of the bidding race and joined hand with Powertek under a joint-venture initiative.
Sources said AES Corporation verbally communicated to the Power Cell that it has lost its interest to submit the final bid for the project because of some "unfair practices" by the tender-inviting agency.
No official was available for comments on the allegation.
After this stance by AES Corporation, the developer of the country's largest 450MW power plant, the industry insiders apprehended that only two bidders-Powertek and Chevron-might finally submit bids.
However, the Power Cell still expects to receive bids from the three firms-AES, Chevron and Powertek.
As per the bidding proposal, the firm that will win the final bid will have to implement the Bibiyana Power Project on build-own-operate (BOO) basis in line with the Private Sector Power Generation Policy 2004.
The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will purchase electricity from the plant for about 22 years.
Earlier, the Power Ministry had initiated the move for setting up three large-scale IPP projects: 450MW Sirajganj plant, 450MW Meghnaghat phase-III plant and the 450MW Bibiyana plant.
Earlier, the closing date for the bid submission was July 15 and now it has been re-fixed as July 25.
This is for the third time that the bid closing date was deferred as May 7 was the first schedule.
However, no official of Power Cell could be reached for comments about the deferment of the date.
The Power Cell, a reform implementation wing of the Power Ministry, invited the international tender for implementing the plant as an independent power producer (IPP) project.
Official sources said so far three international bidders have purchased the request for proposal (RfP) documents to submit their respective technical and financial offers.
But of them only two international bidders looked set to submit their final bids for the proposed plant. Primarily, four bidders-US-based AES Corporation and Chevron, Malaysia-based Powertek Barhad and South Korea-based Kepco-were selected under the prequalification (PQ) process for the project, according to official sources.
But Kepco later pulled itself out of the bidding race and joined hand with Powertek under a joint-venture initiative.
Sources said AES Corporation verbally communicated to the Power Cell that it has lost its interest to submit the final bid for the project because of some "unfair practices" by the tender-inviting agency.
No official was available for comments on the allegation.
After this stance by AES Corporation, the developer of the country's largest 450MW power plant, the industry insiders apprehended that only two bidders-Powertek and Chevron-might finally submit bids.
However, the Power Cell still expects to receive bids from the three firms-AES, Chevron and Powertek.
As per the bidding proposal, the firm that will win the final bid will have to implement the Bibiyana Power Project on build-own-operate (BOO) basis in line with the Private Sector Power Generation Policy 2004.
The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will purchase electricity from the plant for about 22 years.
Earlier, the Power Ministry had initiated the move for setting up three large-scale IPP projects: 450MW Sirajganj plant, 450MW Meghnaghat phase-III plant and the 450MW Bibiyana plant.