The Adani Group company had reached the final stage of the bid for supplying seven million smart metres in the Madhyanchal region.
But dealing a blow to the embattled Adani Group which witnessed a sharp decline in its fortunes and had to cancel its $2.5-bn share sale following a damning Hindenburg report, the Uttar Pradesh government-owned Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam cancelled a Rs 5400-crore tender bid by one of the group companies for installation of smart prepaid metres.
According to sources, officials said the prices quoted by the Adani group company were much more than the expected cost of procuring the metres even though the Company’s bid was the lowest.
Sources said that the government had invited bids for the installation of 25 million smart metres worth Rs 25,000 crore. One of the Adani Group companies and some other firms had bid for the tender floated by the four discoms Madhyanchal, Poorvanchal, Paschimanchal and Dakshinanchal separately.
The Adani Group company had reached the final stage of the bid for supplying seven million smart metres in the Madhyanchal region.
Sources said that although the price quoted by the Adani Group company was the lowest, it was still much above the guidelines of the Union government .
The price quoted by the company was Rs 10,000 per metre as against the guidelines’ figure of Rs 6,000.
Discom officials said that the bid had been cancelled owing to ”some issues with the rates”. ”The bids have been cancelled over technical reasons and a fresh bid has been invited,” a senior official of the discom said here on Monday.
President of the UP State Power Consumers Council Awadhesh Verma, who had opposed the Adani Group company’s bid citing high prices, welcomed cancellation of the bid and said that he had taken up the issue with the concerned authority and demanded that the bids for the other discoms also be cancelled.
