MAY 20238TOP STORIES As many as 29 companies, including seven international players, have submitted bids for supply of raw materials and providing working capital to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. The deadline for filing of Expression of Interest (EoI) invited by the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP).The Telangana government, which had sent a team of Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) last week to VSP to study the feasibility of filing EoI, stayed away from the process. Sources in the VSP said both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments showed no interest in filing bids for the EoI.Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had sent a team of SCCL officials to the VSP to study the feasibility and the move had triggered curiosity in political circles. While employees of the VSP, who have been protesting against the Centre's decision to privatise the public sector undertaking, had welcomed the move, Andhra Pradesh's ruling party YSR Congress had criticised the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government of adopting double standards on the issue. Andhra Pradesh Industry Minister Gudivada Amarnath had slammed BRS for opposing the privatisation of VSP and at the same time, planning to participate in the bidding. In a major boost for energy cooperation between Nepal and India, private entities and companies of both countries inked an agreement for selling and buying energy directly. Earlier, this power was only enjoyed by two government or government-owned entities. Now the Nepal government has to make a law to allow the private sector to sell energy directly to external private companies.The agreement was signed during the final day of the eighth Power Summit, inaugurated by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'. According to Independent Power Producers Association, Nepal, the summit is the largest power sector event in Nepal, with 800 energy sector-related participants - energy trading companies, power producers, financial institutions, transmission and distribution companies, consulting companies, vendors, and think tanks, among other stakeholders - participating, including 800 international delegates from more than 30 countries. The largest numbers of participants were from India.As per the agreement, Indian private sector hydropower project developers can buy electricity up to 200 MW from Nepal. The Nepal Power Exchange (NEPEX), which was established by the private sector with the aim of trading electricity abroad, signed the agreement with India's Steel Mint with IPPA, Nepal, President Krishna Prasad Acharya and Steel Mint's Kshitiz the signatories. NEPEX Director Uttam Blon said that he is hopeful that even if the Nepal government has not given the license for electricity trade to the private sector, it will give the license in the future. 29 FIRMS FILE BIDS FOR VIZAG STEEL PLANT, TELANGANA STAYS AWAYINDIAN, NEPALI PRIVATE COMPANIES SIGN AGREEMENT FOR DIRECT ENERGY SALE
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