Sterlite lowest bidder for power project

Press Trust Of India / New Delhi October 10, 2009

Vedanta Group company Sterlite Energy is believed to have bagged the country's first Ultra Mega Power Transmission (UMTP) project, breaking the decades-old monopoly of state-run PowerGrid Corporation.

"Sterlite Energy has emerged as the lowest bidder for the country's first ultra mega transmission project, to be developed by the private sector," sources in the know said.

As many as eight firms, including Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Power Transmission Ltd (RPTL) and Essar Power, had participated in the bidding process for three UMTPs worth Rs 5,650 crore.

Sterlite Energy is the lowest bidder for one project, Power Finance Corporation’s (PFC’s) East-North Interconnection. For the two others, the lowest bidders are yet to be announced. Rural Electrification Corporation and PFC had started the process of awarding the three transmission projects, Talcher Augmentation Transmission System (Talcher-II), North Karanpura Transmission System and East-North Interconnection System, in 2008.