NTPC looking to enlist local vendors in Salakati project

From our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR, April 18: tiol Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which is constructing the 750-MW Bongaigaon Thermal Power Project (BgTPP) at Salakati in Kokrajhar district, is looking for efficient and local vendors for enlistment for operatiol requirements in each NTPC plant. The construction of power project which got delayed for several reasons in the past is going on in a smooth way and the first unit with capacity of 250 MW is going to be fully operatiol next month as the steam blowing activity of the unit 1 has already been done.

At a press conference held at its administrative building, Salakati on Saturday, the Group General Mager (GGM) of BgTPP, Utpal Chakrabarti said that they were looking for efficient vendors to supply the operatiol requirements in the plant. He said priority would be given to the local vendors for enlistment and they have taken some special initiatives for engagement of local bidders, suppliers. He also said that BgTPP wanted participation of local people in online vendor registration process on all-India basis and registration of enlistment of vendor had started since April 15, which would be a continuous process but only a few local vendors had come forward for registration.

Chakrabarti said that till now, for operatiol requirements, each NTPC plant used to procure/issue tenders to vendors known to them or local area vendors. This system resulted in limited participation, limited competition, and substantial increase of cost of procurement, limited business opportunity for vendors, he said, adding that this on many occasions resulted in uncertainty about the period of procurement and increased inventory cost. To address these problems, the NTPC had decided to expand the vendor base, bring uniformity in procurement process at all power plants and transparent and more efficient source standardization. He said to achieve this goal,the NTPC was going for vendor enlistment for all material procurement and works contract on all-India basis. He also said the NTPC wanted to involve each and every potential vendor/contractor so that no eligible vendor would be left out. After enlistment, all future tenders of NTPC plants would be issued to enlisted vendors only and the new system would increase business opportunities by 30 times to all enlisted vendors and enlisted vendors/contractors would be issued an enlistment certificate which would be valid for three years, he said adding that after initial enlistment, the list of enlisted vendors would be reviewed and updated on quarterly basis.

As per the vendors’ registration system, the enlistment process would be entirely online and no offline application would be entertained. There is no need of fee for enlistment process and vendors need to register themselves at www.vendor.ntpc.co.in and upload the documents required in the website. The vendors can deal with all the aspects related to tendering, supply of material, payment and grievances in the website and previously registered vendors need to register afresh.

Replying to questions, Chakrabarti said the NTPC targeted 2011 as the completion year but the project work was delayed for several reasons. However, now the construction was going on smoothly. The first unit with 250 MW of power would be operatiol after a month and remaining three units with 250 MW each would be completed with one year gap respectively. The first part was synchronization of station for power supply to power grid and the second part was commercial synchronization, he said, adding that Assam would get 50 pc power share as per power purchase agreement once it was fully operatiol and after commission of first unit with 250 MW, 125 MW of power would go to the State of Assam while sharing of 37 MW of power equivalent to 15 per cent of power was being discussed.

KR Mondal, AGM of C&M said 19 projects were under construction which would contribute over 44,598 MW from 17 coal base, 7 gas base, 8 from renewable energy and 7 from joint venture coal base power plants located across the country. He also said the power producing capacity of BgTPP would be increased from present target.