Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd has extended the date of submission of tender documents till January 21 to appoint power distribution franchise in the state capital because it has not received any bidder so far.
Sources said a case, filed by Essar challenging the power company’s decision to cancel its tender, which is pending in the high court, might have prompted the prospective bidders to adopt a wait-and-watch policy. Initially, several firms had shown interest in taking over the power distribution franchise for Patna.
“We have extended the date for submission of tender documents because of the case pending in the court. We had seen in the past that tender documents are submitted in the final two or three days of the process,” Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd director V.C. Gupta said.
The company had earlier twice extended the date for submission of the bids. It issued fresh tenders on October 22 for the appointment of distribution franchise for the state capital, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya. The company issued fresh tenders following the cancellation of Essar Power’s tender on September 20.
This is the third time when the company has extended the submission of tender documents for selection of franchise for Patna. The company had first fixed December 14, 2012 as the first deadline to submit tender documents.
The deadline was again extended till December 31, 2012, on the ground that power majors like CESC, Reliance, Power, Tata Power, Essel Group, Monte Carlo and Adani Group were carrying out survey in the four cities to get the “real picture”. The latest deadline is January 21.
Five bids have, however, been submitted for Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya, while the technical bid was opened on January 2 for the three cities. Essel Group has submitted bids for all the three cities, while SPML and Spanco have submitted bids for Gaya and Bhagalpur, respectively.
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