The value of HCC'S civil engineering contract on the project in the state of Himachal Pradesh, in northern India, is Rupee 296.9 crore (US$60M). The contract period to complete the plant is 45 months.
Civil works on Kashang will involve construction of a river diversion, intakes, a conveyance channel, de-silting basins, a power channel, headrace tunnel, an underground balancing reservoir, an underground powerhouse and a tailrace tunnel.
State-owned HPPC has issued a call for tenders by 19 May for electromechanical equipment for the project. A pre-bid conferment is to be held on 16 April.
The Kashang scheme is located on the Kashang and Kerang rivers, which are tributaries of the Satluj. It is to be built with a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) towards the Himachal Pradesh Clean Energy Development Programme.
In the fourth quarter of 2008 the bank approved US$800M in loans towards four projects to be developed as part of the Programme - Shongtong-Karcham (402MW), Sawra Kuddu (111MW) and Sainj (100MW) and the Kashang I, II & III projects (195MW).
While HCC notes in its contract award that the installed capacity is to be 195MW (3 x 65MW), the project has preciously been cited to be 243MW, and this equates to eventual inclusion of Kashang IV, which will have an additional capacity of 48MW (2 x 24MW).
Separately, for the Sawra Kuddu (3 x 37MW) project HPPC is calling for bids, by 8 April, for a package of civil works including diversion barrage, power intake, and desanding arrangements.
Patel Engineering was awarded the contract for the powerhouse complex at Sawra Kuddu, and andritz va-tech Hydro (now Andritz Hydro) was awarded the electro-mechanical contract.
Recently, a joint venture led by HCC won the turnkey contract to build the 330MW (3 x 110MW) Kishanganga project, in Jammu & Kashmir. The turnkey contract is valued at Rupee 2726.49 crore (US$560M) and is to be completed in 84 months.
