Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL), a government of India enterprise, has invited a tender for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a 5 MW captive solar power project in Mangalore, Karnataka.

The scope of work includes the design, supply, erection, installation, testing, and commissioning of the project along with associated transmission system as well as the operation and maintenance of the project for a period of 5 years.

Apart from this, the successful bidder will have to get the required approvals pertaining to land, evacuation, open access, wheeling, banking arrangements and the like.

According to this tender, any interested party can only submit only one bid for the project, either bidding individually or as a member of a consortium.

The last date for bid submission is January 7, 2019. The solar power project must be completed within six months from the date of issuance of the letter of award.

To be eligible to bid for the project, a bidder’s company should have net worth of at least ₹100 million (~$1.40 million) and an average annual financial turnover in the last three years should not be less than ₹500 million (~$7 million).

Karnataka is a hotbed of activities when it comes to the solar sector. For instance, recently, the Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) issued a tender for the selection of EPC contractor for developing 50 MW (10 MW x 2 blocks + 15 MW x 2 blocks) of grid-connected solar projects at Pavagada Solar Park, located in Tumkur district of Karnataka.

Previously, Mercom also reported that Airports Authority of India (AAI) was on the lookout for an EPC contractor to develop an 8 MW grid-connected solar project at Hubballi airport.

According to the Mercom India Solar Project Tracker, Karnataka has installed large-scale solar capacity of over 5.3 GW and has a development pipeline of ~2.5 GW, making it the leading solar state.