Bids sought for civil works for India’s Dibang multipurpose project

India’s state power producer NHPC, formerly the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, invites bids by 13 April for the civil works package for the 2.8 GW Dibang multipurpose project in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Online electronic bids are invited on an international competitive bidding basis for the “Construction of civil works for Lot 4, comprising headrace tunnel including intake, pressure shafts, penstocks, powerhouse and transformer cavern, tailrace tunnel, pothead yard and adits”, according to a tender notice published on the website of NHPC on 24 February. The contracted works are expected to be completed within 86 months of contract signing.

The storage project on the river Dibang in the Lower Dibang Valley District will feature a 278 m-high concrete gravity dam, six horseshoe-shaped headrace tunnels varying from 300 to 600 m in length, an underground powerhouse with twelve 240 MW units and six horseshoe-shaped tailrace tunnels varying from 320 to 470 m. The storage project is designed to generate 11 223 GWh in a 90 per cent dependable year, as well as to control downstream flooding. It is one of a series of dams planned to control flooding on the rivers, which feed the Brahmaputra river and mitigate the perennial damage caused by floods in the neighbouring state of Assam. Estimated to cost INR 280.8 billion (US$ 4.1 billion), the project is expected to take nine years to complete from final Government approval. The project has already obtained all statutory technical-economic and environmental clearances, and in July 2019 received approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for expenditure of INR 16 billion (US 232.4 million) on pre-investment activities and various clearances.

Complete bid documents can be viewed and downloaded from the Central Public Procurement (CPP) portal and submitted through the same portal at eprocure.gov.in. The site can also be viewed through the e-procurement section of the NHPC website at www.nhpcindia.com. Bidders are required to enrol on the e-Procurement site of the CPP portal by using the “Online Bidder Enrolment” option available on the home page. Enrolment on the CPP Portal is free of charge.

Tender documents for are available upon the payment of a non-refundable fee of INR 40 000 in favour of NHPC, Faridabad, by way of demand draft. Bids are to be carried out through the website of the Central Public Procurement Portal at eprocure.gov.in. A pre-bid conference will be held on 17 March at the below-mentioned offices of NHPC.

For further information contact: General Manager (CC-IV), Contracts Civil Division, 2nd Floor, Jyoti Sadan, NHPC Office, Sector-33, Faridabad-121003; Tel: +91 129 2270596; Email: contcivil4-co@nhpc.nic.in.