The Indian Railways has issued a request for proposals for establishment of a 1 MW rooftop solar plant at a facility in the Central Railway’s Nagpur Division. The project will be carried out in the form of a ‘Public-Private Partnership’ and will adhere to the design, construct, finance, operate, and transfer (DBFOT) paradigm. The selected solar power developer will be responsible for the solar PV system’s design, engineering, procurement, erection (including civil and structural works), installation, testing, and commissioning.
According to the tender guidelines, the winning bidder will also be responsible for managing and maintaining the systems for the next 25 years after the projects are completed. After the Railways issue the letter of acceptance, the selected bidder must provide the performance bank guarantee. The solar power generated will be used only by Railways through a net metering scheme.
For grid-connected rooftop projects across various Railway sites, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set a maximum subsidy of 15 per cent of the entire project cost or the MNRE benchmark cost of Rs 80 million per MW, whichever is lower. The deadline for proposal submissions is May 8, 2023.
Recently, South Eastern Railway floated bids for empanelment of agencies to implement rooftop solar projects totaling 2.3447 MW in Odisha and 1.4738 MW in Jharkhand. According to the tender guidelines, the developers must provide comprehensive operation and maintenance services for a period of 25 years.
