3 JUL, 2012, MANMOHAN RAI, ET BUREAU
LUCKNOW: In a major concession to power project developers, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday that his government was going to allow coal import for 10 power projects, MoU's for which were signed during the previous Mayawati regime.
Speaking in the state assembly, Yadav said that in view of the acute power production shortage the government would allow the 10 MoU power projects which have failed to take off due to lack of coal linkages to go ahead with import of coal.
This would enable the power projects to become operational and help the state tide over severe power shortage, Akhilesh Yadav said.
He said that the state government would ensure that the power generated from these projects is available at competitive rates to the consumer and they would fix the power tariff after careful consideration of the issue.
This is Akhilesh Yadav's second major concession to the 10 power project developers who had signed MoU's during the previous Mayawati regime to set up thermal power plants in the state with total generation capacity of 10,970 MW.
It had on June 7, given an 18 month extension to the developers to get all formalities including coal linkages cleared.
The MoU's signed during the Mayawati regime had given an 18 month time frame to these developers for getting all formalities completed with the rider that the bank guarantee totaling Rs 500 crore submitted by these developers would be seized if they failed to do so within the stipulated period. The developers had undertaken to get coal linkages on their own and achieve financial closure of these projects within the said period.
At the expiry of the deadline, the Akhilesh Yadav government on June 7 this year decided to give a further extension of 18 months, choosing not to seize the bank guarantee. The decision was attributed to coal linkage problems being faced throughout the country and to send a positive signal to the corporate world.
Of the 10 power project MoU's, the 450 MW project by sugar major Bajaj Hindusthan is already operational. Another 1980 MW Lalitpur-1 power project also of Bajaj Hindusthan is in an advanced stage of construction with almost Rs 3,000 crores being invested in it. All the remaining power projects remain only on paper due to lack of coal linkages.
The other power MoUs that were signed are the 1320 MW Bhognipur-I project being set up by Lanco Infratech Himawat Power Ltd; 1320 MW Bhognipur-II project of Lanco Infratech; 1980 MW Lalitpur-II (earlier Bargadh) to be set up by Bajaj Hindusthan; 600 MW Murka to be developed by Creative Thermolite; 250 MW Barabanki (earlier Farrukhabad) of Parekh Aluminex; 250 MW Auriya of Unitech Power; 1320 MW Sandila of Torrent Power and 1320 MW Mirzapur (earlier Ghazipur) allotted to Welspun Power.
The decision to allow import of coal would benefit these companies.
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