Greater Visakhapatnam Smart City Corporation Ltd. ( GVSCCL) has issued a tender for 15 MW of floating solar farm under the Smart City Mission.

The project, which will be developed on a turnkey basis, is located at Meghadri Gedda reservoir in Visakhapatnam district.

The brief scope of work includes the supply, design, engineering, manufacturing, installation, and commissioning of the project. A bidder will also have to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) for a period of 10 years.

The last date for bid submission is January 9, 2019. The techno-commercial bid will open on the same date. The price bid will open on January 11, 2019.

To be eligible to bid for the project, a bidder should have designed, supplied, installed and commissioned at least 8 MW of grid connected solar PV projects in the last five financial years, out of which at least one project should have been of 2 MW capacity or above.

The average annual turnover of the bidder should not be less than ₹250 million (~$3.56 million) in the last three financial years.

In August 2018, Greater Visakhapatnam commissioned a 2 MW grid-connected floating solar project. The floating solar PV project is installed atop the Mudasarlova reservoir in Visakhapatnam. This is now the largest operational floating solar PV project in India, displacing the 500 kW floating solar project that was commissioned in Kerala in December 2017.

Under the central government’s Smart City Program, scores of cities have announced their plans for the installation of solar panels to make these cities sustainable.

Recently, the Greater Chennai Corporation planned to install solar panels on 662 of its buildings under Smart City Program.

In March 2018, Karnataka’s Tumakuru Smart City Limited tendered 2.7 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar projects to be established on the city’s government buildings.

In April 2018, the Diu Smart City became the first in the country to run on 100 percent renewable energy during daytime hours. It has developed 9 MW solar park in the city along with rooftop solar panels located on 79 government buildings, generating 1.3 MW annually.

In October 2018, Indore Smart City Development Limited also issued a tender for smart meters to be installed under Indore Smart City project. This is a percentage rate tender for the supply, installation of smart energy meters with RF Mesh Communication Module in area-based development (ABD) area.

Image credit: Ciel & Terre