In a setback for the Adani Group, the DMK-led Tamil Nadu authorities has cancelled its international tender for procurement of sensible meters regardless of the Adani Vitality Options Ltd (AESL) rising because the “lowest bidder” for it.
The state authorities’s Tamil Nadu Technology and Distribution Company (Tangedco) scrapped the sensible meter procurement tender, citing “excessive prices” quoted by the AESL – the bottom bidder for one of many 4 packages that coated eight districts, together with Chennai, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu.
This package deal alone concerned the proposed set up of over 8.2 million sensible meters beneath the Centre-funded Rs 19,000 crore Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), which is envisaged for putting in sensible meters for all electrical energy connections within the state barring the agricultural ones.
The Tangedco officers mentioned the costs quoted by the AESL to bag the tender have been “unacceptable regardless of negotiations to deliver down the prices”.
All 4 tenders, floated in August 2023, have been cancelled, together with these for the remaining three packages protecting different districts, as a result of “administrative causes”, sources within the Tangedco mentioned, including that the federal government would refloat the tenders quickly.
The M Okay Stalin authorities’s transfer comes a month after US prosecutors indicted Adani Group chairman Gautam S Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and 6 others for allegedly providing Rs 2,029 crore in bribes to Indian authorities officers for securing “profitable photo voltaic power provide contracts” with state electrical energy distribution corporations. The Adani Group has dismissed these allegations as baseless. The US indictment has at its centre the Centre-run Photo voltaic Vitality Company of India (SECI).
Seizing on this growth, the Opposition INDIA bloc, particularly its main member Congress, has escalated its assaults on the Adani Group. The DMK is a key constituent of the INDIA alliance.
Within the state political circles, the Stalin authorities’s transfer to revoke the tenders has been attributed to the allegations surrounding the Adani Group.
Earlier this month, Chief Minister Stalin denied claims that he had met Gautam Adani, difficult the NDA events, together with the BJP and the PMK, to again the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani Group’s operations.
“Neither Adani met me nor I met him. Do you want any extra rationalization on this?” Stalin mentioned within the state Meeting, dismissing accusations of his authorities’s ties with the Adani Group. The CM additionally identified that the Tamil Nadu electrical energy board had agreements with public-sector entities just like the SECI for solar energy procurement, not with Adani.
A pilot mission carried out in Chennai’s T Nagar in 2018 noticed the deployment of 1.1 lakh sensible meters beneath the Sensible Metropolis initiative, clearing the decks for its rollout throughout the state.
The tenders’ cancellation has additionally raised questions concerning the sensible meter mission’s cost-effectiveness. Below the DBFOOT (Design, Construct, Finance, Personal, Function, Switch) mannequin, the Superior Metering Infrastructure Service Suppliers (AMISPs) would set up and keep the sensible meters, with the Tangedco repaying prices on a per-meter-per-month foundation over 10 years.
The AESL, already implementing comparable tasks in states like Maharashtra and Bihar, was mentioned to have quoted a better worth for Tamil Nadu as in comparison with different states. “The Adani Group’s bid was considerably larger than the Rs 120 per meter per thirty days it quoted elsewhere,” Tangedco sources mentioned.
At present, Tamil Nadu is main the RDSS initiative with a sanctioned plan for over 30 million sensible meters. The set up of sensible meters is projected to scale back the state’s combination technical and industrial losses from 16% to 10%, whereas enhancing billing effectivity and enabling simpler tariff planning.
An skilled who advises the Tangedco on coverage mentioned, “The tender cancellation could also be all a couple of cautious strategy to keep away from allegations of favouritism in direction of Adani, given the controversies gripping the Group’s enterprise practices, each domestically and internationally.”
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