Chhattisgarh SEB may blacklist Chinese firm
Chhattisgarh SEB may blacklist Chinese firm
New Delhi: The poor experience of Chinese firms in India’s infrastructure sector continues with the Chhattisgarh State Electricity Board planning to blacklist an equipment supplier from the neighbouring nation after the company delayed construction of a power project.
The Board has already invoked the bank guarantee of ₹ 35 crore deposited as bid money by China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Company (CMEC), CSEB chairman Rajib Ranjan told PTI .
“This is not enough... Our project has been delayed by 18 months. We will give them one more chance to respond and if they fail we shall blacklist them," he said.
CMEC had outbid domestic power equipment supplier BHEL for setting up a 600 MW power project in coal-rich Korba district with the lowest bid of ₹ 3.61 crore per MW.
However, CMEC did not start work even after receiving the letter of intent from the Board and asked for an escalation in cost citing a rise in prices of steel and other inputs.
CMEC is not the first Chinese firm facing problems in India’s infrastructure sector. The Indian government has earlier disallowed permission to a number of Chinese companies like Huawei, ZTE and Hutchison Whampoa from key sectors such as telecom, ports and aviation.
While Huawei wanted to set up a telecom manufacturing unit, ZTE planned to start after-sales service. A unit of Hutchison Whampoa was reportedly barred from a port project in Kerala, while another unit of the same group was not allowed to supply aerobridges for the Delhi airport.
Ranjan said the Board wanted the overseas supplier to stick to the price in the contract.
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