TN govt rubbishes oppn charges over Udangudi power project

Tamil Nadu Government today dismissed charges of irregularities and opposition's demand for a CBI probe over cancellation of tenders for the 1330 MW Udangudi thermal power project and said the bids were rejected due to deficiencies.
"Governance in this regime is transparent and allegations of opposition parties are imagination," Electricity Minister Natham Viswanathan told the state Assembly.
He was replying to call attention notices of DMK, PMK, CPI(M) and CPI on the issue. DMK Floor Leader M K Stalin demanded a Commission of Inquiry by a judge while CPI(M) sought a CBI probe.
The bids submitted by both BHEL and an Indo-Chinese consortium had deficiencies and the consultant put the onus of choosing the bidder on state power utility TANGEDCO, he added.

"The Indo-Chinese firm even went to the court on the cancellation of bids and the court disposed of the matter after going into the issue. Where is irregularity?" he asked.
He also said a section of media had been publishing reports on the power project without getting their facts right.

As proceeding further with bids that had deficiencies could give rise to legal issues, TANGEDCO had to reject the tenders, he said and pointed out that reasons for non acceptance of bids had been listed in the tender bulletin itself.
Seeking to corner the DMK which has been targeting the government on the issue, he accused the previous regime of "burying the project" as it had not taken steps to implement it despite being announced by it in 2007.

The AIADMK regime, however, facilitated land acquisition by appointing revenue official and got environment clearance arranged for coal imports, he said.
Ruling out any delay in project execution, he explained the duration taken for each of the work and cited events like polls during which the project had to be put on hold.
On the charge that electricity was being bought at higher prices, he said it was "a mad allegation, a baseless charge" and people could not be deceived by such claims.
He said the average power purchase price during the DMK regime was Rs 6.70 a unit and now it was Rs 5.50 and the government had gone in for long term power procurement for Rs 4.91 a unit.

"During the DMK regime, power was bought for as high as Rs 20 a unit and even for that only the AIADMK government remitted payment," he added.