|
Removal
of components: IDBI to send team to Dabhol site
Sanjay Jog
Mumbai, Jan 4: Stunned by Dabhol Power Company’s decision
to take away e-chip and certain documents to Houston citing
“security” reasons, Industrial Development Bank of India intends
to send a high-level team to the Dabhol plant site to take
stock of the situation. IDBI is also likely to take up the
matter with the US-government supported Overseas Private Investment
Corporation, which had offered a $200-million insurance cover
to the company.
| Centre
refuses to intervene |
|
New Delhi, Jan 4: The government
said on Friday it will not “intervene” in the controversy
over bankrupt energy trader Enron removing components
needed to restart its idle $3billion power plant at
Dabhol in Maharashtra.
“Centre doesn’t monitor power plant equipment and their
functioning... It is a local matter between the stakeholders
of Dabhol Power Company (DPC) and the government has
no intention to intervene at this point of time,” a
senior power ministry official told PTI here.
Enron said on Friday it had removed critical components
from the 2,184 mw power plant to prevent damage.
The ministry official said Enron had neither informed
the Centre nor the Industrial Development Bank of India
(IDBI) and other lenders that had lent $1.4 billion
to the failed project, about the removal of components.
“The parts were removed without their (lenders) knowledge
even though the plant is mortgaged to them, making it
hard to sell the power station to recover part of their
loans,” the official said.adding IDBI had asked for
an explanation. — PTI
|
The IDBI board, which is currently meeting
in Aurangabad, would take up the issue for discussion at length
on Saturday. The rupee lenders’s consortium led by IDBI had
lent a whopping Rs 6,746 crore to the distressed Dabhol project.
Curiously, DPC’s action has also put a question mark over
the much-debated confidentiality pacts to be signed separately
by Tata Power Company and BSES with DPC before making an actual
bid to takeover the troubled project. it is learnt that Tata
Power and BSES would also lay down a condition before entering
into the confidentiality agreement that DPC must clear the
status on the e-chip. These bidders would also insist that
the e-chip would have to be installed again for restarting
the plant.
Institutional sources told this newspaper that they had taken
a serious note of DPC’s submission on taking away the e-chip,
manufactured by GE which holds 10 per cent in the project,
and certain documents citing security reasons and said the
matter was quite serious and needed to be examined thoroughly.
These sources also said it should be vetted whether or not
DPC’s action would attract action under various provisions
for customs violations.
These sources also wanted to know whether any other gadgets
had also been shifted to Houston. “We will start this exercise
next week,” they added. Meanwhile, MSEB which holds a 15 per
cent in DPC, has consulted its lawyers and decided to “wait
and watch” until it receives the minutes of DPC board meeting
held on November 30 in London. MSEB sources said the DPC board
might have taken a decision in this regard at the London meeting
which was not attended by MSEB and the state government.
Similarly, DPC had not informed MSEB on its move to take away
the e-chip as it did not think it fit to do so especially
when MSEB has cancelled the PPA on May 23 and suspended power
purchases from May 29 last.
Meanwhile, the anti-Enron lobby has taken a strong objection
to DPC’s action.and has demanded criminal action against the
company.
|
