By IANS,
Chennai : Integrated lignite mining-cum-power generator Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLC) will order boilers and turbine generators for its proposed 2×500 MW power plant at Neyveli in two months, a top official said.
Ruling out any issue on the choice of technology and the rumours of re-tendering owing to one of the bidders withdrawing, NLC chairman and managing director A.R.Ansari told reporters here: “In two months time we will award the tenders. The shortlisting of the bidders are under process. There will be no re-tendering.”
He said NLC has shortlisted two bidders – Vitcovice and Ansaldo led consortium for boilers and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and Korean company Doosan for turbine generators.
NLC has decided to scrap its 600 MW power plant called Thermal Power Station-I (TPS-I) comprising of 6×50 MW and 3×100 MW units and install two new units of 500 MW capacity each at an outlay of over Rs.5,907.11 crore.
As a matter of fact power sector officials are keenly watching the boiler tender where two foreign companies have been qualified and the Indian major BHEL has not submitted its bid.
According to Ansari, the nine units of TPS-I are the oldest power plants in the country up and running even though it is 50 years old.
“The plant load factor (PLF) of TPS-I is over 80 percent,” he said.