Sluggish pace of BoP work becomes a stumbling block for completion of the new 800-MW unit of NTTPS
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The Commercial Operations Date slated for August may not materialise according to an NTTPS official
More than five years after the Balance-of-Plant (BoP) component of the new 800-Megawatt unit of Dr. Narla Tatarao Thermal Power Station (NTTPS) in Vijayawada was entrusted to BGR Energy Systems Limited (BESL), the revised Commercial Operations Date (CoD) scheduled for August is likely to be missed due to the sluggish pace of works that are further hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A senior official of NTTPS said on the condition of anonymity that the CoD is slated for August, but it may not materialise as cost overruns claimed by the BESL became a stumbling block.
Tenders for the BoP construction were invited by the AP-Genco way back in December 2015 and the Chennai – based BESL bagged the contract against its closest competitor TATA Group in early 2016. But, there has been no appreciable progress in the BoP construction for the last several months as BESL cited various reasons for it including cost escalation, which is learnt to have forced the AP-Genco to try to descope the work and rope in another firm that could better execute the project, but to no avail as the company managed to get an extension.
Also read: 800 MW unit of NTTPS likely to be commissioned early 2019
According to official sources, the BESL failed in all aspects due to its financial woes and the AP-Genco could not mount pressure on it to complete the work as per the commitment given by it.
Now, keeping up the CoD is said to be not possible for at least another six months because of the issues that remain to be sorted out.
BHEL, which won the contract for Boiler-Turbine-Generator component (BTG), will not be able to finish its job either as the BTG and BoP works are interlinked.
The EIA study for the 800-MW unit of NTTPS was commenced in 2013 on the basis of the project report prepared by Desein Private Ltd.
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