KATHMANDU: Eight companies have submitted proposals for construction of the 40-km stretch (Dhalkebar to Bathnaha) 400 KV cross-border transmission line of the Dhalkebar Mujaffarpur transmission line (129 km).
Power Transmission Company Nepal (PTCN) today opened the technical proposals of the eight bidders. Their financial documents are yet to be opened. Representative of Nepal Electricity Authority for PTCN Badri Narayan Sah informed that the technical proposals would be studied and sorted out in the next ten days. After that, the financial proposals would be opened for evaluation before finalising the winner of the Rs 1.5 billion project.
Completion of the project 16 months after work starts will ease the bottleneck of power transmission between the neighbouring countries, which have opposite seasonal patterns of energy consumption. It will also pave the way for reciprocal exchange of power.
Energy consumption in India is high during summer and Nepal can supply surplus energy with the high water discharge of the rainy season, whereas Nepal’s high energy demand during the dry months can be fulfilled through power supply from India.
The country reels under acute power crisis during dry months. What’s worse, the absence of transmission line has affected power import from India.
The bidders are: Mega Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd, Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd, Aster Dependable Services, TATA Projects Ltd, JV of Unitech Power Transmission Ltd, Skipper Ltd, KEC International Ltd, GAMMON India Ltd, and Fedders Lloyd Corporation Limited.
All the bidders are Indian companies as Exim Bank of India, the investor, only qualifies Indian bidders, informed Sah.
Likewise, Cross-Border Tower Transmission Company (CPTC) Limited of India also today opened the tender and found that eight companies had applied for construction of the 89-km stretch of the transmission line on the Indian side, Sah informed.
PTCN and CPTC plan to complete the project in 16 months after the tender is awarded.
The first tender notice was published on March 4 and extended three times. PTCN and CPTC are private companies engaged in construction of the transboundary transmission line in Nepal and India.
Source : The Himalayan Times
