Over Rs 150 Crore Rooftop Solar Power Scam Surfaces in JAKEDA

A multi-crore scam has surfaced in Jammu and Kashmir Energy Development Agency (JAKEDA).

Solar Projects worth Rs 155 crore for supply, installation and commissioning of roof top solar power plants were allotted to 10 firms without any tenders while the 14 other firms which qualified in the tendering process got just Rs 42.35 crore contract, according to Kashmir daily.

Under National Solar Mission for J&K State, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Government of India proposed to achieve a target of 1150 MW solar power which includes 450 MW to be achieved under Solar Rooftop Scheme in 7 years from 2015-16 to 2021-22.

The MNRE sanctioned 54 MW aggregate capacity of Grid tied Rooftop Solar Power Plants ranging from 1-500 KW capacity for Government Sector of the State having Project Commissioning timeline of 18 months (February 15 2018 to August 15 2019).

The JAKEDA floated e-tender for Rate Contract (vide No. ST/EDA/RTS-Tender/84/2016-II/1516 due on 22-05-2017, extended to 06-06-2017) for supply, installation and commissioning including five years Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC) of Grid Connected Rooftop Solar PV Power Plants as per the latest technical specifications of MNRE, GoI for aggregate target capacity of 56 MW subject to the condition that allocation of the capacity may be changed by JAKEDA, if MNRE changes the targets.

In response to the e-tender floated by the Agency 18 bidders participated in the tender, out of which four bidders could not qualify technically. The successful bidders were Greensol Renewable Power Pvt Ltd. Bengaluru, Premier Solar Systems Pvt Ltd Secunderabad, Fourth Partner Energy Pvt Ltd Hyderabad, Solex Energy Pvt Ltd Gujarat, Lanco Solar Energy Pvt Ltd Gurgaon, Orkan Energy Pvt Ltd, Jammu, Social Engineers Pvt Ltd Dehradun, Success Impex Pvt Ltd New Delhi, Sunfuel Technologies, LLP, Delhi, Prostar Micronova Power Systems Pvt Ltd Pune, Grunumwelt Energy Pvt Ltd Jammu, Rays Power, Tata Power Solar, Noida and Arsh Electronics, New Delhi.

The Contract Committee of JAKEDA headed by the Administrative Secretary, Science and Technology Department met on 20-06-2017 and the PC approved the lowest rates quoted by M/s Premier Solar Systems Pvt Ltd for supply, installation and commissioning including free Maintenance (CMC) for a period of 5 years of grid-connected Rooftop Solar Power Plant as per the specifications of the NIT.

The CEO, JAKEDA was authorized to offer the lowest rates quoted by M/s Premier Solar Systems Pvt Ltd to all the other 13 qualified bidders and the bidders who accept the lowest rates shall be empanelled for execution of the scheme.

However, after finalization of the Rate Contract, JAKEDA not only empanelled the vendors who had qualified in the Tender, but also included 10 more firms, which had neither participated in the tendering process nor had the requisite papers to qualify in the bidding.

JAKEDA issued Letter of Award for works of about 28 MWP, costing Rs 155 crore to these 10 companies which were empanelled by JAKEDA on its own, without seeking approval of the competent committee or without inviting fresh tenders, and allotted the work of about 28 MW capacity to them in gross violation of rules.

As per the Basic Tender condition minimum of 20 percent of the total work was to be allotted to the M/s Premier Solar Systems Ltd who actually got the contract. However, the company was allotted a meager work of 140kWp only 1 percent out of total allotted work of 14593KWP which is less than one crore.

The other 13 successful bidder companies were either allotted no work or were allotted meager works and they were allotted only works worth Rs 42.35 crore whereas the companies which neither qualified nor took part in the bidding process were allotted works Rs 155 crore.

The 10 companies which were allotted works illegally are 3S Infra for Rs 5.5 crore, Easy Solar Solutions Pvt Ltd for Rs 8.25 crore, Jackson Engineers Ltd for Rs 11 crore, Jeanie Power Solutions for Rs 1. 10 crore, Kanoda Energy Systems Ltd for Rs 550 crore, Rawmate Solutions for Rs 33. 00 crore, Sova Solar Ltd for Rs 5775 crore, ANN Infrastructure for Rs 27.50 crore, BVG Clean Energy for Rs 2.75 crore and Blue Bird for Rs 2.75 crore.

The six successful bidder companies – Fourth Partner Energy Pvt. Ltd, Solex Energy Pvt, Rays Power, Lanco Solar, Tata Power Solar and Arsh Electronics – were left out and they were provided no contract.

The other eight successful bidder companies M/s Premier Solar Systems Pvt Ltd, Green Sol, Orkan Energy, Social Engineers, Success Impex, Sunfuel Technologies, Prostar Micronova Power and Grun Umwelt Energy were provided contract worth Rs 42.35 crore.

The JAKEDA by allotting about 36MWP capacity works, created a huge liability of about Rs 170 crore on this account without following the due procedure as per the rules. No concurrence was obtained from the Planning or Finance Departments of the State prior to the allotment of these works.