Coal India Ltd may invite fresh tenders for 56 dumpers of 190-tonne capacity each. Dubbed as the largest equipment contract to be awarded by the coal major in recent times, the tender was worth close to Rs 1,500 crore.

As per the original schedule, the dumpers were slated to be delivered to major opencast mines of wholly-owned Northern Coalfields (NCL) and Eastern Coalfields (ECL), by 2011-12.

Together, these mines contributed nearly one-fifth of CIL's production of 430 million tonnes in 2009-10. The delay in procurement may, therefore, impact the production and productivity of CIL in the next two years.

“The current tenders will expire next month and it appears that we may have to invite fresh tenders for the equipment as the existing tenders have met with procedural deadlocks,” the CIL chairman, Mr Partha S Bhattacharyya, told newspersons on Monday.

Asked about the anticipated impact both in terms of production as well as the possibility of increased cost of procurement, during the process of re-tendering, Mr Bhattacharyya expressed his helplessness over the situation. “We have to accept it as fait accompli,” he said.

Pricing issues

The problem cropped up as CIL wanted L&T-Komatsu combine, the lowest bidder (L1), to lower its quotes for the 190-tonne dumpers — inclusive of 11-year maintenance and repair contract (MARC) — below the levels of a recently awarded contract for supplying 240-tonne dumpers. However, the L&T-Komatsu combine did not agree to reduce its prices from the quoted levels of approximately Rs 29 crore (including MARC) to below Rs 24 crore for each dumper.

To further complicate the situation, Ultra Max- BelAZ combine has officially offered to reduce the prices below Rs 24 crore for each 190-tonne dumper. A major global supplier of earth movers, BelAZ of Belarus, was the second lowest bidder (L2).

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