UP hikes stakes to 35% in two JVs

The UP government has decided to hike its equity participation to 35 per cent in two joint venture companies to be set up for the Bara and Karchana thermal power projects located in Allahabad.

The capacity of the Bara project is proposed to be 1,980 Mw, while the Karchana project is likely to have an installed capacity of 1,320 Mw. Both the projects are proposed to be executed by roping in private firms.

Cabinet Secretary Sashank Shekhar Singh said here today that the cabinet had approved a proposal to hike the equity participation in the two shell companies floated for the two projects from Rs 10 crore in each company to Rs 35 crore. He said global tenders for both would be floated soon and the contracts were likely to be awarded by the end of the current fiscal.

On the coal linkage for both the thermal power projects, Singh said the UP government was not satisfied with the coal mines allotted by the Union coal ministry at Chendipara in Orissa.

He said coal mines had been jointly allotted to three states "" Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh "" and the three states would develop the three mines. He said UP wanted the Centre to allot independent mines for the two projects to ensure uninterrupted coal supply and a smooth financial closure for both the projects. He said Chief Minister Mayawati had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for independent coal mines for the Bara and Karchana projects.

In a quick riposte to Rahul Gandhi's observation in Amethi on Sunday suggesting the UP government concentrate on adding fresh power generation capacity, the cabinet secretary said consistent indifference and lack of cooperation from the Centre were the root causes for the power crisis in UP.

He said of the eight ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) being set up by the Union power ministry not a single project has been allotted to UP. "It was Centre's decision to allot UMPPs to only those states where the coal mines are also located; this has deprived the UP OF UMPP," he added.

Citing another instance of injustice by the Centre, he said from UMPPs the share of the host state is 50-60 per cent while from the Rihand Super thermal Power project of NTPC at Rihand, the state was getting only 35 per cent of the total power generated there.

It may be recalled that the UP government recently signed an MoU with the NTPC for a 1,320 Mw mega thermal power project in Allahabad district. Besides this, the NTPC has also agreed to expand the capacity of its 4X110 Mw Tanda thermal power plant in Ambedkar nagar district. The NTPC will add a fresh capacity of 1,320 Mw at Tanda plant.