Private firm to get contract of New Ganderbal hydro project

After nearly two decades, the PDP-BJP government is finally handing over the construction of the 93 MW New Ganderbal power project on the left bank of the Sindh in central Kashmir to a private firm —- Hindustan Construction Company (HCC).
The decision to handover the construction of the hydropower project to HCC will be taken in the Cabinet meeting likely to be held in the third week of this month.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has directed the officials concerned to keep the construction of the power project in the Cabinet meeting agenda, officials said.
“The Chief Minister has got convinced that the construction of the New Ganderbal power project has to go to the lowest bidder (HCC) as per the rules. It will be taken up in the next Cabinet meeting and most likely approved,” an official in J&K State Power Development Corporation (SPDC), which owns the power project, said.
The official said the Chief Minister as the head of the board of directors of the SPDC, at a meeting on October 22, had agreed to handover the project to the HCC by the consent of the Cabinet.
The Mumbai-based HCC had won the bid to construct the power project in September 2014 at a cost of Rs 811 crore. However, the SPDC wanted the HCC —- the lowest bidder —- to negotiate the construction cost which is against the guidelines of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). After HCC refused to negotiate the cost coupled with the change of the NC-Congress government in 2015, the SPDC remained without board of directors, delaying the construction of the power project.
Even the Finance Department had on April 15, 2015, quoted the State Vigilance Commission that post-tender negotiations should formally be discouraged in lowest bidder, except in exceptional situations. “Such exceptional situation would be procurement of propriety items, items with limited sources of supplies and items where there is suspicion of cartel formation,” the Finance Department had informed the SPDC.
The process to construct the power project has picked up after the government announced board of directors for the SPDC earlier this year. Also the approaching expiry date of the validity of the bid in July has necessitated the construction of the power project, an official said. “If we don’t allot the contract to the HCC before July, 2017, the whole process of the tendering has to take place again,” the official said.
The New Ganderbal power project conceived in late 80s and formally announced in 1996 will have a surface de-silting basin and comprises of three units of 31 MW each.
The SPDC owns around 23 hydropower projects with a total installed capacity of 1211.96 MW, besides four independent power producers of 42.5 MW. Four projects are under implementation in the state sector with a capacity of 103.5 MW and three major projects with an expected generation capacity of 3,176 MW are in the pipeline, officials said.
“In the recent board of directors meeting it was decided that the matter of New Ganderbal hydroelectric power project be referred to the Cabinet. Let the Cabinet decide, the SPDC has nothing more to say on this issue at the moment,” the Managing Director, J&K, SPDC, Shah Faesal said.

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