RelPower plea on Anpara project dismissed

     
Feb 4 (PTI) In a setback to Reliance Power, the electricity tribunal APTEL has dismissed a petition challenging capacity expansion of the Anpara project awarded to its rival Lanco, in which the Utter Pradesh government had allowed expansion after the bidding was over.

Dismissing the petition of RelPower, the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) observed that since Lanco had already invested approximately Rs 1,000 crore in the project, there was no reason to interfere.

"The construction has already been started in November 2007 itself. So far, the Respondent 4 (Lanco) has spent about Rs 998 crore on this project," the sectoral tribunal said and added it would be detrimental to the interest of Lanco if at this stage the contract was cancelled, that too without any valid reason.
    
APTEL bench headed by Chairman Justice M K Vinayagam also said if the project, where Lanco had successfully bid for 1200 -MW power project, was cancelled, it would negatively impact the industrial development of the state as well.
    
In 2006, RelPower had lost the Anpara project of 2x500-MW to Lanco. Later, as a policy decision, the state government decided to increase the capacity of the plant by 20 per cent -- 500 MW to 600 MW.