New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) on Monday said it welcomes the move of cancelling tender for purchase of smart meters by Madhyanchal discom of Uttar Pradesh.
In a statement, the association has also demanded for all such tenders to be cancelled as “private companies form cartelisation” in the business.
“AIPEF welcomes the cancellation of tender for purchase of smart meters by Madhyanchal discom of Uttar Pradesh and demands that all tenders for purchase of smart meters in Uttar Pradesh should be cancelled,” the statement said.
The association has alleged that a campaign was going on to award the tender to a particular private company and all the private companies which had submitted the tender had entered into a cartel for this.
AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey said “Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation had decided to buy 2.5 crore smart meters in Uttar Pradesh by spending Rs 25,000 crore. The Federation was opposing it from the beginning. When the tenders were opened, Adani (Group) had the lowest price in the Madhyanchal discom’s tender.” According to Dubey, a company of Adani Group had quoted a price of around Rs 10,000 per meter which was much higher than Rs 6,000 per meter fixed as per REC’s standard bidding norms, and it is on this basis the Madhyanchal discom has cancelled the entire tender process.
“We demand that the tender process in all the discoms of UP should be cancelled immediately on this basis. Four companies, Adani, GMR, L&T, and Intellismart Infra, had put tenders and in connivance with each other, they had entered into cartelisation in the process of tendering,” he said.
Dubey further said that instead of smart meters, the amount of Rs 25,000 crore should be spent on strengthening the electricity distribution network in Uttar Pradesh to avoid power wastage. PTI ABI HVA
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