GRIL – Patel JV Wins Dibang MPP’s Contract in Arunachal Pradesh

This project doesn’t quite fit into the typical contract categories that I track, but I thought it deserved a post given its big-ticket size, importance and location😀 It also includes several, 17 to be precise, tunnels which I’m most interested in.

GR Infraprojects – Patel Infrastructure JV on Tuesday was declared as the preferred bidder for Dibang Multipurpose Project (Dibang MPP)’s Lot-4 after reverse auction.

This $3.9bn hydroelectric project in the Lower Dibang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh will produce 2880 MW (12 x 240MW) of power and help mitigate downstream flooding in the state of Assam.

It will consist of a 278m tall concrete gravity dam (tallest in India when completed), 6 horse-shoe shaped head-race tunnels of lengths varying between 300m to 600m with 9m diameter, an underground power house, 5 diversion tunnels, and 6 tail-race of lengths varying between 320m to 470m with 9m diameter.

NHPC had invited bids for Lot-4’s construction in February 2020 with an estimate cost of Rs. 3530.99 crore and completion deadline of 86 months. Financial bids were opened on March 7 while the reverse auction was held on March 21.

Reverse Auction Bid Values

Lot-4’s Brief Scope: All works comprising head race tunnels including intake, pressure shafts, penstocks, power house & transformer cavern, tail race tunnels, pothead yard, adits etc.

GRIL – Patel JV’s reverse auction bid value was neglibily higher than NHPC’s estimate, so a contract should be awarded in the coming weeks.

While we’re on the topic of hydro-electric projects, in the past I wrote about a Herrenknecht tunnel boring machine passing factory acceptance tests (FAT) for Pakal Dul Hydroelectric Project (HEP) in Jammu & Kashmir – read all about it here.

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– TMRG