The list of the builders includes the National Thermal Power Corporation, Noida Power Company, Essar Power, Reliance Energy, Ahmedabad Electricity Company, Crompton Greaves, China Light and Power , Tata Power, Birla Power Projects, Malana Power, KLG Systel, DSP Merrill Lynch and Eastern Powers & Systems.

According to corporation officials, the shortlisting has already started and will be completed soon. They have also indicated that keeping in view the reputation and the financial strength of the bidders, the numbers is unlikely to go below 12.

Meanwhile, the corporation has started negotiations with the Power Finance Corporation and World Bank on financial assistance.

But the extent of consumption in Uttar Pradesh suggests much more financial support will be needed and the loss improvement percentage (the money that bidders charge to bring down accumulated losses) will be higher. This has been conveyed by the bidders to the corporation.

Meanwhile, corporation officials are busy in the due diligence exercise and that will be followed up by preparing "request-for – proposal" documents. They also plan to hand over the documents to all the bidders.

"Three things will be done simultaneously," said the chairman and the managing director, Arun Mishra. "First, Pricewaterhouse Coopers will do the loss assessment, stock and inventory evaluation, updating assets and liability; secondly, we will assess the transitional financial support ; and finally, sourcing the transitional finance support will be done," he added. The corporation is also preparing an efficiency improvement roadmap and the business module, which will be common for all the bidders.

The state is divided into five zones, each with its power distribution company. They are Meerut, Agra, Lucknow, Allahabad, and Kanpur.