Mumbai, July 8: The Mumbai high court will take up a public litigation case filed against the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) next week. The plaintiff, Digvijay Khanvilkar, a MLA from Karveer (Kolhapur), had challenged the decision taken by the board in granting a Rs 180-crore order for retrofitting 15 power stations to the Delhi-based Power Plant Inprovement Ltd (PPIL).MSEB is believed to be of the view that the contract given to PPIL, a 50:50 joint venture between BHEL and Siemens of Germany, was not only economically viable but also offered additional generation capacity.
On face value, the bid submitted by an European competitor, LMZ, seemed cheaper but in actual terms worked out to be dearer, MSEB maintains. PPIL, which quoted Rs 12 crore offered a 22.5 mw turbine while in the case of LMZ, th Rs 7 crore order comprised a 14.9 mw turbine. As per initial calculations, Rs 1 crore had to be added for each mw in the lower capacity tender to compare the two bids. This translated into anadditional Rs 7 crore, which rendered the bid of LMZ more expensive.
The board reiterates that awarding the contract to PPIL not only saved money but promised additional generation. The difference between the two turbines was over 7 mw and for the total 15 turbines, the board was getting an additional 110 mw with the PPIL contract. MSEB is believed to have saved significantly by getting this extra power as a new 110 mw unit would call for an investment of around Rs 300 crore.
Recent reports in the media have indicated that MSEB's counsel Deepa Chavan said that the contract was awarded to PPIL after a thorough evaluation technically and financially.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
