Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Jagdish Shettar and BJP senior leader VS Achar told newsmen here that besides being not not economically viable, the project would jeopardise the ecology of the sensitive western ghats. The Government should give up the project and go in for an alternative project, using liquefied natural gas or residual fuel obtained from the Mangalore Refineries and Petro-Chemicals Limited. The per unit energy through the LNG route would be at least forty paise less compared to the rate agreed to by the Cogentrix, they said.

Alternatively, the Government could set up a 1000 mw unit near Bangalore in view of the heavy load in southern Karnataka. The state could be divided into four regions for power production and avoid transmission costs.Leader of the Opposition in the legislative council and Janata Dal (S) leader KH Srinivas, speaking in support of the project accused the Congress government of delaying clearance by setting up an expert committee to look into the escrow cover requirement for the project.

The parameters for issue of counter guarantee issued by the Government clearly mentions the necessity for escrow cover and there is some "ulterior motive" in the Krishna government appointing the expert committee, he claimed. The Government should come out with a valid reason for themove, he added. He said his suspicion was that the government wanted tosabotage the cogentrix project.