ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday received expressions of interest (EoIs) from six international companies for 10 coal-fired power projects of 660mw generation capacity each at PML-N’s flagship Gadani Power Park Project.

The government had sought in July this year invitations for setting up of projects to be based on imported coal with a cumulative capacity of 6,600mw (10x660) at Gadani, Balochistan. The deadlines were extended twice amid political unrest and limited investor response.

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The EoIs were opened by acting managing director Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) Shah Jahan Mirza in the presence of representatives of bidding companies.

PPIB spokesman Sami Rafi Siddiqi said the EoIs would be examined by an independent consultant according to a predefined criterion and notification to bids would be issued within a month.

Responding to a question, he said a total of 12 companies had purchased documents for EoIs and six of them submitted formal EoIs. He said all the six companies had submitted EoI for 1320mw each.

The companies which submitted their EoIs included four from China and one each from Malaysia and United Arab Emirates. These include China Gezhouba Group Company Limited; China Machinery Engineering Corporation, China Huadian Engineering Company Limited and Harbin Electric International. Others included ANC Holding of Dubai and Genting Energy of Malaysia.

The government had created Gadani Power Park Management Company early last year as a special purpose vehicle for the management of 6,600mw coal based power projects at Gadani and to provide infrastructure facilities at the project site to facilitate international investors, mostly from China.

The 10 projects of 660mw each were first advertised in July this year seeking expressions of interest by the deadline of August 18. Attributing poor response from investors to political tension in the federal capital arising out of Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri’s protests, the government had extended the deadline to September 29 but this time the investor response failed to pick up.

The deadline was further extended until October 31 to provide more time to investors. The government had earlier registered foreign companies for setting up of all the 10 power projects at Gadani through negotiated memoranda of understanding.

These registered firms had also deposited earnest money in foreign exchange but then the government decided to invite bids to meet procurement rules to avoid controversies for awarding contracts through negotiations.

Therefore, it asked the already registered firms to send their EoIs and their previous earnest money would be returned or adjusted.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2014