South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd (SBPDCL) has decided to cancel the tender it has floated in May for selection of a power distribution franchisee through competitive bidding for the city.

Reason, the SBPDCL has failed to attract a single bidder for carrying out the distribution franchisee job for the Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) area in spite of extending the tender floated on May 29 — third time in its fourth attempt to privatise the power distribution network.

“Neither have we received any tender for the distribution franchisee job nor are we going to extend it any further. We have actually asked our consultant to analyse the reason for non-participation by the bidders,” SBPDCL managing director Sanjay Kumar Agrawal said.

Sources said the bidders wanted a change in the terms and conditions that are largely confined to the benchmark price of Rs 4.13 fixed on the basis of 2011-12 rate.

The benchmark price is for first year only and it would increase every year. The bidders want that the benchmark price should be lowered. However, one of the SBPDCL officials said: “We have left with fewer options. We will run the Pesu as we have been doing for the past several decades but we cannot hand it over to a private distribution firm by incurring losses to it (Pesu). At least we will ask for the quantum of revenue what we have been collecting from the consumers.”

The company has cancelled the bids earlier. First, it cancelled the bid of Essar — the successful bidder and was allotted the tender — on September 4, 2012, after it started dictating the terms that it would supply its own power and that of supplied by the then state electricity board.

The franchisee’s job would be to supply and distribute electricity, distribution of bills, taking down meter readings among others.