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West Bengal seeks lowest power plant bid
New Delhi News.Net
Tuesday 8th July, 2008 (IANS)
West Bengal would offer engineering procurement and construction contracts (EPC) to any company which emerges as the lowest bidder irrespective of the country of origin of the winner as long as it adheres to specifications, said state power minister here Tuesday.
West Bengal Power Minister Mrinal Banerjee at the inauguration function of Rabi Rashmi Abasan, the first solar housing complex, said: 'We will offer EPC contracts for installing power plants to any company that turns out to be the lowest bidder irrespective of the country of origin of the winner as long as they adhere to specifications.'
'We will not differentiate between China's DongFang or for that matter any Chinese or Russian or US-based company,' he said.
He added: 'We have now decided to set up four super critical units of 660 MW each - two each at Bakreshwar and Sagardighi.'
West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited's (WBPDCL) new unit at Sagardighi is still unoperational as cracks developed in the turbine blade. The component had to be sent to China, where it was manufactured.
Chinese company DongFang Electric Corporation (DEC) is building this project.
'It is not that Chinese equipments are inferior because they emerge the lowest bidder or because their equipment break down during installations. There have been instances where Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited's (BHEL) critical components have also broken down or there has been tube leakage in units where equipment had been supplied by this company,' said Banerjee.
'During construction of any unit there can always be a teething problem of equipmnet not performing up to specifications, which is taken care of subsequently,' he added.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has formed a technical committee to look into the quality aspects of plants and equipment supplied by Chinese equipment suppliers like DongFang Electric Corporation (DEC) and Shanghai Electrical for setting up power plants in the country.
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