Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) has won an interstate transmission project, valued at around Rs.3,500 crore, in Karnataka.
In an investor conference held on February 5, 2025, R.K. Tyagi, Chairman & Managing Director, PGCIL, said that the transmission utility very recently won a transmission project in Karnataka, envisaging project outlay of around Rs.3,500 crore.
Though no further details were provided, T&D India expects that the project in question is an ISTS-TBCB scheme housed under “Chitradurga Bellary REZ Transmission Ltd.”
With a project outlay of Rs.3453 crore as estimated by National Committee on Transmission (NCT), this scheme taking shape in Karnataka is termed as “Transmission scheme for integration of Davanagere/Chitradurga and Bellary REZ.”
PGCIL was among the five bidders that were qualified for opening of initial price bids when bids were opened by bid process coordinator PFC Consulting Ltd on January 13, 2025. Others in the fray included established players like Sterlite Power and Adani Energy Solutions Ltd. The qualified entities also had relatively new contender JSW Neo Energy Ltd, and Dineshchandra R. Agrawal Infracon Pvt Ltd (DRAIPL) that recently debuted in the ISTS development space. It is not yet known which of these qualified entities made it to the e-reverse auction stage.
The two-pronged scheme involves setting up transmission infrastructure for integration of the Davanagere/Chitradurga REZ with an estimated completion time of 24 months, and similar infrastructure for the Bellary REZ estimated to complete in 30 months.
Key project elements include setting up of 765/400kV, 4×1500 MVA and 400/220kV,4×500 MVA pooling station at Davanagere/Chitradurga and a 400/220kV, 4×500 MVA pooling station at Bellary.
PGCIL’s performance in Q3FY25
According to an investor presentation by PGCIL, during Q3 of FY25 (October 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024), the transmission utility was named L1 bidder in seven ISTS-TBCB schemes with aggregate tariff of Rs.2,077.58 crore.
As of February 5, 2024, the formal SPV transfer had taken place in the case of five schemes, while for the remaining two (marked * in the fiven list), the letter of intent was received from the bid process coordinator. The seven schemes are housed under the following project SPVs:
- Bikaner A Power Transmission Ltd
- Bikaner B Power Transmission Ltd
- Rajasthan IV 4A Power Transmission Ltd
- Kudankulam ISTS Transmission Ltd
- Gadag II & Koppal II Transmission Ltd
- Khavda V-B1B2 Power Transmission Ltd*
- Bidar Transco Ltd*
Also read: PGCIL confident of meeting FY25 capitalization target
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