NTPC wins case against Ansaldo over Rs16,000-crore equipment tender

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) will now place orders worth Rs16,000 crore for supercritical equipment after the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Ansaldo Caldaie Boilers India Pvt Ltd, a unit of Italian boiler maker Ansaldo Caldaie SpA, had failed to technically qualify for the bidding process.

"NTPC's appeal has been allowed in the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in the case against Ansaldo Caldale Boilers India Private Limited and another on February 16, 2012 and the impugned judgement of the high court has been set aside,'' NTPC said in a stock market filing.

NTPC will now ''invite price bids from BHEL and the joint ventures of BGR Energy Systems Ltd and Hitachi Power Europe GmbH, and the Larsen and Toubro -Mitsubishi Heavy Industries combine that had technically qualified for the order,'' NTPC's chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury said after the verdict.

NTPC's tender, part of India's biggest power generation contract, had invited manufacturers last year to supply a package of 11 supercritical boilers and an equal number of supercritical turbines of 660MW each, to be built locally. Of these, nine units are for NTPC's own stations and two are for Damodar Valley Corporation.

Bids for the boilers meant for the steam turbine generator packages of 660 MW Mouda STPP (2X660MW), Solapur STPP (2X660MW), Nabinagar STPP (3X660MW), Meja TPP (2X660MW) and Raghunathpur TPP (2X660MW) were invited separately on 16 October 2009.

Four parties, namely, BHEL, L&T MHI, BGR Energy Limited and Ansaldo Caldale Boilers India Private Limited (Ansaldo) participated in the bidding for SG package. During the techno commercial evaluation, the bid of Ansaldo was rejected since it did not satisfy the tender condition in respect of qualification.