With a view of reducing consumption of electricity as well as the global warming, Mysore Palace Board has decided to replace 635 Sodium Vapour and other electric lamps with LED lamps at an estimated cost of ` 77 lakh.

This would conserve as many as 20,000 units of power per month as well as save ` 1.5 lakh which otherwise would have been spent on monthly electricity bill.

Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing & Export Corporation Limited has planned to set up two more cold storage units in Hubli and Bagalkot. In this regard, the Corporation has floated tenders and are looking for responses from technically competent companies to set up the same in north Karnataka.

In a major victory for Chinese equipment suppliers in the country, government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has included Huawei and ZTE in the new tender for GSM networks in North and Eastern zones. The tender includes strategically-sensitive states of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the North East and Assam.
The other group of suppliers are European players Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network (NSN) and Alcatel Lucent.

BSNL has floated a tender for procuring equipment and installing a GSM network of 5.5 million telephone lines in Northern and Eastern zones.

NTPC believes that it will be in a position to tender all its 12th plan projects by March 2012, thus putting the company in place to reach its 75,000 mega watt (MW) capacity target by 2017. To facilitate the process, the state-owned maharatna is hopeful that a new generation of Indian power equipment companies — led by foreign investments from Italian, Korean and Japanese manufacturers—- will be lining up to bid on projects during the next year.

N C Bipindra New Delhi, Sept 2 (PTI) Two years after Navy issued tenders for purchase of 16 multi-role helicopters worth USD one billion, a deal is not in the pipeline since bids from two competing global manufacturers have expired. Defence Ministry sources told PTI today that the commercial bids from American Sikorsky and British-Italian AgustaWestland expired last month and the Ministry was considering asking them to revalidate their existing offers or revise their prices.

BAE Systems, a global defense, security and aerospace company has submitted a response to the Indian ministry of defense`s latest RFI for towed 155mm howitzers, following previous tenders which were cancelled due to the inability of other potential suppliers to meet the tender conditions. The company`s offer will be based on the FH77 B05 155mm howitzer, and a significant proportion will be manufactured in India to meet the specific needs of the Indian Army.

The West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited a government of West Bengal Enterprise has launched spot contract tender for 1.2 million tonne of imported coal to the Power Plants of WBPDCL. Bids close on September 20th 2010.

Sealed tenders are invited in four part bidding system from experienced parties for Supply of Noncoking Coal of Foreign origin for Different Power Stations under WBPDCL. The four parts of the tender would be EMD (Earnest Money Deposit), Qualifying Requirement, Techno Commercial Bid & Price Bid.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has extended the lease period for private warehouses from seven years to 10 years under the Private Enterprenuer Guarantee (PEG) Scheme 2008.

An improvement in food grain production and scarcity of storage space in Haryana and Punjab had put FCI in a fix. A senior official in the corporation said an additional storage space of 7.1 tonnes in Punjab and four tonnes in Haryana was required to address the problem.

NAGPUR: Maharashtra will be the first state to introduce biometric rationing cards. It is a humungous task to carry out a survey of biometric hand prints of over 8 crore people who are enlisted in 2.5 crore ration cards to get the benefit of the public distribution system. It entails huge costs too. But in a wise move that would save crores of rupees, the state has decided to club this process with that of the unique identification cards.

Come 2011, cars stolen in the state will be easier to trace and recover. Beginning next year, the state transport department plans to introduce high-security number plates for all vehicles plying in Maharashtra.

According to the transport department, it will be mandatory for all vehicles — existed and new — to have these number plates. While new vehicles will be fitted with the number plates when they are registered, owners of existing vehicles will be given a two-year period to get the number plates replaced.