Krishak Bharati Cooperative (Kribhco) plans to
invite fresh bids for the engineering procurement and construction (EPC)
contract for its Hazira expansion project in Gujarat.
There are five international EPC contractors in
the line that include Tokyo and Mhe from Japan, Uhdhey from Germany and
Snamprogetti and Technimont from Italy and the price bids from Snamprogetti and
Technimont is found to be on the higher side.
The company will float global bids for a Rs.1,750
crore project by January 2006. Both the international bids has quoted prices for
the proposed project ranging from Rs.2,300 to Rs.2,400 crore, which is higher
than those approved by the Public Investment Board (PIB).
The proposal is ready to go to the CCEA but however
the ministry refused to do so with a project cost escalation of Rs.550-560 crore.
In the fresh contracts, construction of the
ammonia and urea units will be entrusted to separate contractors, creating more
competition to get a reasonable price. The project will have urea and ammonia
capacity of 3,200 and 1,850 tpa respectively. The project will be funded from
internal accruals and financial assistance from banks on 30:70 basis.
Once the project goes onstream, the country will
have an additional one million tpa of urea produced by the latest technology.
Also see:
CCEA
nod for Kribhco expansion soon (07-May-05)