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The legal instrument is the same standing order behind the wider batch of India localisation-preference filings already in the register: the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade's (DPIIT) Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 (as amended), which mandates a bid-evaluation preference margin for "Class-I local supplier" bidders across central-government and PSU procurement. THDC India Limited — a Government of India Mini Ratna enterprise under the Ministry of Power — applied that standing order to a tender for a 53.9 MWac/72.8 MWp ground-mounted solar PV project (plus three years of O&M) sited within KPCL's Raichur Thermal Power Station, requiring solar modules and cells to be sourced from Class-I local suppliers per India's ALMM (Approved List of Models and Manufacturers) regime. The tender used a single-stage, two-envelope electronic bidding process followed by a reverse auction, with an EMD of INR 4.40 crore (MSEs exempt); bid submission closed 25 August 2025.
This is the same recurring class of action as the large batch of NHAI/NHPC/DVC/REIL/PSU localisation-preference filings already in the register, here applied by a hydropower PSU (THDC) diversifying into solar EPC on behalf of a thermal-power counterpart (KPCL). Severity is set low (2) and severity_basis: quant given the disclosed INR 220.24 crore contract value, consistent with the wider batch: this is a routine, standing domestic-preference policy applied within a single procurement contract, not a new trade barrier, and does not exclude foreign bidders outright.
bid-evaluation disadvantage relative to Class-I local suppliers as the wider batch of NHAI/NHPC/REIL localisation-preference tenders already in the register, now confirmed extending to THDC's diversification into thermal-plant-sited solar EPC contracts.
solar PV modules and cells, a sector where Chinese suppliers otherwise hold significant global cost advantage.
designation for this specific tender was not independently confirmed against the full NIT bid document (THDC's own tender detail page has since been taken down/archived post-award).
confirmed.