NEW DELHI: The Dabhol power plant, which is grappling with gas shortage and debt woes, will be revived and many options are being considered for the facility in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, NTPCBSE -0.67 % Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhury said. "Dabhol will be revived. How can we afford in a country to leave one project to get killed by itself ? There are many options which are being considered and it has to be revived," Roy Choudhury said on the sidelines of the BITOSA Conclave.
The Dabhol project, comprising 1967 MW of power generation capacity, a regasification plant and other facilities, is operated by Ratnagiri Gas and Power, owned by NTPC and GAIL India. The project had hit several snags since work started in 1992, from controversies over power purchase price to initial developer Enron's bankruptcy and over ownership, before the two staterun companies agreed to take over it. While they own 32.86% each, the remaining stake is held by MSEB Holding Company and financial institutions.
According to Roy Choudhury, gas pooling might be one of the solutions for the revival of the Dabhol plant, but such a move would depend on the decision of states that benefit from the project. "Now, 95% is Maharashtra so we have to see how Maharashtra takes to it," he said. Speaking at the same event, organised by the Birla Institute of Technology Old Students' Association, the NTPC head said the company's tiff with Coal India over the quality of fuel has been resolved and any gap in quality between the coal supplied and received is now unlikely.
"There is a third party (sampling) at the mining end. There is third party (sampling) at our receiving end. So, I don't think there will be any difference or gap in the grades that is being sent to us and which is being received," he added. The two state-run companies had been at loggerheads over the quality of fuel, with NTPC accusing Coal India of supplying inferior quality coal while billing it for higher grades.
NTPC had also withheld its payment to Coal India. After government intervention, the companies agreed for third-party sampling. ET had earlier reported that NTPC was in the process of appointing third-party sampling agents for coal.
Source:Economic times
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