Reliance bags Uppur thermal power project

Reliance Infrastructure awarded Rs. 3,647 crore engineering, procurement and construction contract

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO), which is establishing the multi-crore supercritical thermal power plant at Uppur in the district, has awarded Rs. 3,647 crore Balance of Project (BoP) package contract to Reliance Infrastructure Limited for the 1,600 MW coal based plant.

Reliance Infrastructure has won the prestigious Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the BoP package and allied civil works after the public sector BHEL was awarded the Rs. 5,580 crore Boiler, Turbine and Generator (BTG) contract, the main part of the Rs. 12,772 crore 2 x 800 MW project, officials here said.

“The contract entails design, engineering, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of BoP package and allied civil works on EPC basis,” a release from the company has said. The company has won the contract in an international competitive bidding amidst competition from leading EPC players like BHEL, L&T, Tata Projects and BGR, it said. After winning the contract recently, a team of officials, led by its vice-president, visited Uppur on March 2 and took stock of the situation.

“This is a prestigious project for us and will add to our existing credentials of executing large, complex projects in record time and at competitive cost,” Arun Gupta, CEO, Reliance Infrastructure, EPC division said in the release. Though initial reports suggested that it would be awarded both BoP and Intake and outfall pipeline system project, the pipeline project for about Rs. 1,400 crore, is likely to be awarded to L&T, the officials said.

The Uppur project, hailed as the pet project of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was expected to take off in July 2016 after she had laid the foundation stone and handed over the BTG contract to BHEL but it remained stuck following legal issues in procuring lands.

Pending legal wrangles, BHEL, after completing soil investigations, has commenced test pile works, the officials said.

Reliance Infrastructure, under BoP package, would undertake civil works, construction of chimneys, ash dyke, roads and other infrastructures, they said. The project is to be commissioned in 36 months, they added.