SJVN Limited, a joint venture between the center and the government of Himachal Pradesh, has invited bids to purchase 1,500 acres of land for setting up solar power projects in Rajasthan.

The land should have chain link fencing on its periphery. It should be located within 20 km from the Rajasthan Vidyut Prasaran Nigam’s (RVPN) state transmission utility grid substation.

The last date to submit the bids online is November 23, 2020, and the pre-bid meeting will take place on November 06, 2020.

Interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹1.18 million (~$15,883) as the earnest money deposit (EMD).

To participate in the competitive bidding process, the bidder should have completed one assignment of at least 500 acres of land in Rajasthan against a single contract in the last five years.

As per the technical criteria, the bidder can quote a higher land area than 1,500 acres. However, SJVN will hold the right to purchase the land over or lesser than the 1,500 acres out of the total land offered.

As per the tender documents, the land offered must not be at a distance of more than 20 km from the grid substation. The land offered must be a single connected patch, and the minimum width of the offered land at any place within the patch should be 500 meters and must have a front of minimum 500-meter width with any metaled or bituminous road. The land offered must have average annual global horizontal irradiation of at least 1800 kWh/m2.

Solar tenders issued by all government and private entities can be accessed by subscribing to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker.

A few months ago, SJVN had invited expressions of interest for shortlisting suitable land to develop 500 MW of solar projects in Rajasthan. SJVN requires 3,000 acres of land to develop the Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Project. For this, it had invited proposals from landowners, farmers, cooperative societies, and land aggregators willing to sell land on an outright basis or long-term lease of 28 years.

Recently, SJVN invited tenders for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of a 100 MW solar project at the Raghanesda Solar Park (Phase X) in Gujarat.

Earlier, it had issued a notice inviting expressions of interest from interested parties to offer their solar and hydropower projects for acquisition by SJVN. To increase its geostrategic reach, SJVN is planning to acquire hydro and solar power projects in Indian states under various stages of operation & maintenance, construction, and survey & investigation.