UP stares at darkness as power projects stay on drawing board

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Lucknow: joint venture project between the NTPC and the UP Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam are also expected to be completed by the end of the 11 th plan period. But the increase of approximately 4500 mw would be of no use as the demand by that time is also set to rise by another 3000 mw at least. Thus, the present deficit scenario of approximately 2000 mw will continue to haunt the state even then,” opined the engineer.

Another senior official of the Power Corporation added, “All efforts by the government to promote public-private partnership in the power sector have failed so far. Bids for the two mega power projects in Allahabad, the 1320 mw Karchchana and 1980 mw Bara projects have been cancelled twice and are yet to be decided and awarded. They have been delayed by a year and a half almost and now the Power Corporation is finding it hard to justify why the third bid for Karchchana be handed over to the Japyee group as their bid is higher than the previous two. In fact, it is now trying to wriggle out of the situation by stating that the bid is high due to the global slowdown but the fact of the matter is that the prices of raw materials have come down and hence there is no reason why a higher bid is justified. The government’s promise of becoming a power surplus state by 2012 is a myth.”

Apart from these two projects, Lanco Kondapalli’s Anpara C project, in Sonebhadra and Reliance’s 3840 mw Dadri gas projects are also stuck up. While the Lanco project is caught in the dispute of changing the capacity of the project from 1000 mw to 1200mw, the controversial Dadri gas-based power project, which has been under a cloud ever since its inception, is yet to see the light of the day due to the disputes of gas linkages.