BHEL a government of India undertaking, has floated an operations and maintenance (O&M) works tender for West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company’s 10MW solar project at Santaldih. Bidders including micro, small, medium enterprises must make an earnest money deposit of ?510,000 (~$6,956). Bids must be submitted before March 13, 2021. The work is expected to cost about ?21.5 million (~$293,242) and will last for five years from the date the site is handed over to the selected bidder in March 2021.

The scope of work includes providing O&M services, including water cleaning about 35000 modules, maintaining grass, logging of DC, AC, and grid parameters as per BHEL’s format, annual transformer maintenance, testing, and calibrating the 33 kV high-tension equipment. To be eligible to participate in the competitive bidding process, applicants must have had an average financial turnover of at least 30% of the tender’s estimated value over the last three financial years.

Bidders must have experience completing similar work in the last seven years. They must have completed three similar works costing at least 40% of the tender’s estimated cost. Alternatively, bidders will also be eligible if they have completed two similar projects worth about 50% of the estimated cost or one similar project costing 80% of the estimated value. Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, BHEL has floated about 319 MW of solar O&M tenders as of January 2021.