The proposal to set up a waste-to-power project may be re-tendered following doubts about the feasibility of the proposals received. The re-tendering may delay the implementation of the project, which would be the first of the kind in the State to be established by the State government.
An “abnormally low” quantity of power generation, shown in the technical documents raised suspicion about the viability of the projects.
A high-level committee which scrutinised the technical and financial bids submitted by three firms had sounded caution about the proposal after an evaluation of the technical and financial bids.
The committee has recommended to the State government to re-tender the projects as it feared that some firms may use the unviable project proposals to raise bank loans and later leave the scene. If the projects, which are prima facie unviable, are cleared, it would lead to serious issues in future.
Hence, the committee thought it fit to recommend re-tendering of the proposals. The Kerala Suchitwa Mission is coordinating the proposals for setting up a Rs. 350-crore waste to energy project at Brahmapuram which can treat around 500 tonne waste a day. The State authorities have fixed March 2014 as the deadline for the project.
The State government has proposed seven such plants across the State including Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts.
The Kochi project was to be implemented in public-private-participatory mode at the 10 acre land of the Kochi corporation at Brahmapuram.