After a delay of more than a year since the request for proposal for

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the fifth ultra mega power project at Bedabahal, Orissa was invited; the project finally seems to be moving ahead. Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for UMPPs, is in process of inviting price bids in a month’s time.

PFC CMD Satnam Singh said the technical comm-ittee has asked for technical details from the list of interested companies, and these are expected to come by November 1.

“It would take 15-20 days for the processing, after which we will invite price bids from the short-listed companies,” said Singh.

Some 20 companies showed interest during the initial round of tendering that took place in July last year. The list includes the who’s who of Indian power industry – Tata Power, L&T, GMR GVK and Lanco.

The Orissa-based UMPP faced roadblocks, as the captive coal mines were declared unfit due to environment-related issues. However, finally the coal mine was absolved from the ‘go, no go area’ clause in June this year.

The environment min­istry gave its nod to six coal blocks, including five in ‘no go’ areas, for three major power plants in Orissa in June. “All six blocks will now be considered by FAC (forest advisory committee) as ‘go’ areas,” Jairam Ramesh then minister for enviro­nment & forests said in June.

He had, however, said the power ministry should give ‘special focus’ on ash disposal and water avail­ability for these mega proj­ects. Three coal blocks Meenakshi-A, Meenakshi-B and Meenakshi Dipside have been allocated for the Bedabahal UMPP.

The Bedabahal UMPP would be the fifth after four UMPPs were awarded by the central government. Of these, Reliance Power has bagged three at Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishna­patnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) while Tata Power is exe­cuting the fourth one at Mundra in Gujarat.

A single UMPP which earlier cost Rs 18,000-20,000 crore is now expec­ted to cost between Rs 20,000 crore and Rs 25,000 crore, Singh said. Techni­cally, any company has won three UMPP projects cannot bid again till two of their projects are operational.