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TPC, GAIL may jointly bid for DPC

Mumbai-based power utility Tata Power Company and state-owned Gas Authority of India Ltd on Tuesday said they may jointly bid for Enron-promoted Dabhol Power Company.

"We have a long standing and cordial relationship with GAIL as it is our main supplier of gas at the Trombay plant. I do not rule out our association with the company as a strategic partner in our final bids for DPC," TPC managing director Adi Engineer said in Mumbai.

Engineer said he had a series of informal discussions with GAIL chairman Proshanto Banerjee over the proposed partnership, but the matter has not moved further due to the 'inordinate' delay in signing of the confidentiality agreement with Enron and its two partners GE and Bechtel.

When contacted Banerjee confirmed Engineer's statement and said, "the partnership makes a good business proposition. If our bid gets through, GAIL will need a strategic partner to run the power plant and if TPC's bid gets the mandate then it will need an expert to operate the LNG terminal."

He said though both the companies had submitted solo expressions of interest for acquiring 85 per cent equity in DPC, "a future partnership was always welcome."

"We are awaiting a green signal from DPC for signing the confidentiality agreement," Banerjee said.

Engineer said, "Enron seems to have other priorities since its setback at the global level. We have been waiting for a long time, the longer it takes them to ask us, the later we will be able to make a complete assessment of the project and it may delay the sale.

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