The Telangana Government is set to cancel the recent tenders floated for supply, installation and maintenance of solar pump sets for use in the agriculture sector.
The State Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao, has directed the Chief Secretary, Rajeev Sharma, to cancel the tenders invited by Nedcap as there have been some complaints of irregularities in the tenders.
Nedcap, the nodal agency for renewable energy projects and for inviting and implementation of solar pump sets, has recently finalised the tenders. These are yet to be made public.
However, since there have been some complaints of irregularities, including arbitrarily jacking up prices, the Chief Minister has directed the Chief Secretary to cancel the tenders and also institute a probe into irregularities. There are reports that the prices quoted have been much higher than the offers made by suppliers in other States.
On Friday, the Chief Minister had held a detailed interaction with the representatives of Kirlosker Brothers, one of the top firms engaged in manufacture of water pumps, on the possibility of procuring solar powered water pumps for the farm sector.
The State has also constituted a high-powered committee of five senior officers to study in detail the feasibility of replacing over 20 lakh pump sets in the farm sector in the State with solar pump sets by analysing the impact on the power sector and the funds required for such a large project.