Chennai,- The Electricity Board has called for a ‘tender’ to undertake the work of upgrading the Chandrabila mine in the state of Odisha, extracting coal and ‘supplying’ it to Tamil Nadu for 28 years.
Tamil Nadu Electricity Board is setting up thermal power plants in Tiruvallur, Tuticorin and Ramanathapuram districts to meet the future electricity demand.
In 2016, the central government allotted the Chandrapila mine in Angul district of Odisha state, which has 90 thousand crore kg of coal reserves, to Tamil Nadu for the coal needed for power generation.
After a long delay, it was decided to upgrade the Chandrapila mine and supply 1,000 crore kg of coal per annum to Tamil Nadu for 35 years through a contract company.
The electricity board had invited tenders in November 2019 to select the company. The project cost is Rs 21 thousand crores. Only one company participated in the tender. Due to this, the tender was canceled in 2020.
At the end of the same year, a new tender was called for. The cost of the project was fixed at 25 thousand crore rupees. With the change of regime in 2021, that tender was also cancelled.
At present, last night, a re-tender has been requested to select a private company to carry out the works of supplying coal from Chandrapila to Tamil Nadu for 1,000 crore kg per annum for 28 years.
Last date for companies to participate is 19 Jan 2023. The total project cost is Rs 25 thousand crores.
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