RITES Limited, an engineering consultancy company that specializes in transport infrastructure, has floated a tender for setting up 1 GW of land-based solar photovoltaic power projects on various zonal railways land across India.

Interested bidders are expected to make an earnest money deposit of ₹1 million (~$13,272), payable to the Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL), a joint venture of the Indian Railways and RITES Limited. Applicants must also pay a tender fee of ₹29,000 (~$385) to the REMCL.

The last date for submission of bids is June 29, 2020. A pre-bid meeting will be held on May 28, 2020.

Mercom will cover this tender in more detail after relevant documents with more information are made available.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, RITES has so far tendered nearly 366 MW of solar capacity.

A few months ago, Mercom had reported that the Indian Railways was planning to source approximately 1,000 MW of solar power and nearly 200 MW of wind power by 2021-22 across zonal railways and production units. Out of the 1 GW of solar projects, the ministry planned to install 500 MW on the rooftop of railway buildings while the remaining 500 MW were be used to meet both traction and non-traction requirements, according to a statement by the government.

The Indian Railways is the single largest consumer of electricity, with about a 2% share of the national energy consumption.

Last year, REMCL also issued a Request for Selection to procure power from wind-solar hybrid projects.

In November 2019, Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Railways, said that the ministry had installed 95.67 MW of rooftop solar systems, adding that the ministry had awarded nearly 248.46 MW of solar capacity.

Previously, the Railway Energy Management Company Limited issued a request for qualification (RfQ) to set up approximately 32.56 MW of rooftop solar systems at various railway establishments and stations across the zonal railways in India.