The stay order placed by the State Energy Department on the tender process for developing solar projects under the Karnataka's Solar Mission has been lifted. Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd (KREDL) is set to open the technical and financial bids in a couple of days.

The main issue that led to the stay was a complaint from bidders stating that KREDL should have followed e-tendering procedure for the bidding process for companies to participate in the Karnataka Solar Mission.

According to Mr N.S. Prasanna Kumar, Managing Director, KREDL, the case “had been resolved”. “The Cabinet has cleared the proposal and we are expecting communication from the cabinet any moment,” he told Business Line .

The State Energy Department had, last month, stayed the tender process for developing solar projects under the Solar Mission, following complaints by few developers.

Under the Karnataka Solar Mission, that State had announced that it was targeting 350 megawatts (MW) of solar projects by 2016.

As part of this, KREDL had floated a tender for setting up projects with a total capacity of 80 MW.

Mr Kumar had earlier told Business Line that “there are no grounds for the stay” as KREDL was not one of the companies that had officially opted for following the e-tendering process for the 80 MW of tendering.

Another problem that developers reportedly raised was that the amount bidders had to pay as security/MW – Rs 20 lakh - was too high for small developers.

Twenty two companies had applied for setting up projects when the bids closed on 24 November, 2011.

Though the bids closed on November 24, the bid documents weren't opened immediately as the tendering process for the National Solar Mission was on and KREDL wanted to wait for those to close before the allocation of projects under the State solar policy was made.

> sushma.un@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics