February 27, 2015

Power Grid Corporation of India won the Rs. 6,000-crore Gadarwara A & B project in Madhya Pradesh. The other bidders were Adani Power, Essel Infra and Sterlite Grid. Earlier, there were 11 players in the fray with two European firms as well. Only four companies, including Power Grid, submitted bids. Power Grid won by submitting the lowest bid — 25 per cent lower than the average of bids made by the other three bidders.

The bids were called by Rural Electrification Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the ministry of power for the Gadarwara transmission project. The project would evacuate the power generated from the upcoming 1600 MW thermal power project of NTPC in Gadarwara, Madhya Pradesh.

Currently, Power Grid has an order book of more than Rs. 1.3 lakh crore of central- and state-funded projects. For the 12th Plan, Power Grid’s target of capital expenditure is Rs. 1 lakh crore out of which capital expenditure of Rs. 43,195 crore has already been made in the first two years of the 12th Plan period (Rs. 23,158 crore in 2013-14 and Rs. 20,037 crore in 2012-13).