The state government is likely to take up the issue in a cabinet meeting shortly in which the project capacity and the tariff will discussed in view of the Central Electricity Authority's (CEA) conditional approval. After this, the proposal can be referred back to the ministry of power.

Earlier while granting the clearance to the project, the CEA had stated that the capacity of the plant should be considered 447 mw instead of 410 mw as mentioned by the company. According to a Reliance spokesperson, the matter is pending with the state government and the company can only discuss the issue after they get a response from the government.

Meanwhile, the company has missed thedeadline for submission of the financial plan to the CEA on Jan 21 this year. "We have already submitted the initial financial plan to the MSEB and once the pending issues are resolved, we will submit the final plan," says the company spokesperson.

However, it is learnt that CEA may grant an extension as the proposal was stuck at the government level. "We usually wait until the state sorts out the PPA and grant the company an extension," said a ministry official. However, once the PPA is finalised the deadlines are to be followed strictly and an exception is made only if the developer can give sufficient proof that the situation was beyond its limits.

The naphtha-based project is one of the power projects planned when the sector was opened for private sector. The project was awarded to Reliance after a global competitive bid. The company had signed the PPA with MSEB two years ago. The project was also granted the fuel linkage by the state from its quota of liquid fuel allocated by the Centre.

Theproject, however, ran into problems as the CEA put certain conditions while granting the techno-economic clearance to the proposal. Though now less than 1,500 mw power projects are not evaluated by the CEA, this being planned earlier will still come under CEA's preview.

The state government has denied escrow account facility to the company for payment guarantee. The project is one of the three large power projects signed by the state many years ago. While the 740 mw Dabhol power plant was commissioned recently, the 1,082 mw Bhadravati project to be set up by Ispat Industries is yet to sort out some problems.