Rental power bid deadline extended

Bowing down to the pressure of interested entrepreneurs, the Power Development Board yesterday extended the bid submission time for eight rental power projects to October 29 from October 21.
Earlier, the PDB had expressed determination to stick to the October 21 deadline on grounds that it wanted the rental power projects of 530 megawatt to launch their operations by the next irrigation season.
Moving this deadline would seriously hamper the government's goals in the power sector, the PDB told interested entrepreneurs at various meetings.
But entrepreneurs have been arguing that they needed more time to prepare their bid documents and visit the power project sites offered by the PDB. Yesterday's decision came as a result of this pressure.
The entrepreneurs have also been putting pressure on the PDB to allow captive power developers to bid for the rental power projects by easing the bidders' qualification criterion.
The PDB has agreed to allow bidders with captive power generation experience. Captive power developers are businessmen who generate their own power for their industries.
"This would open the flood gates and now all kinds of people will bid for the rental power projects. It will be a mess," said a source.
The PDB has already sold nearly 40 tender documents against the eight rental power projects as of now. The time extension and relaxation of bid criterion would mean dozens more documents will be sold in the next few days.
The diesel-based rental projects will have three-year contracts while the furnace-oil based ones five years. The diesel projects are: Bheramara 100MW, Katakhali 50MW, Thakurgaon 50MW and Syedpur 50MW. The furnace oil projects are: Noapara 100MW, Madanganj 100MW, Jamalpur 30MW and Barisal 50MW.
The diesel plants will be given 120 days for implementation and the furnace-oil plants 270 days.