The Jharkhand government has decided to take appropriate action against the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power’s decision to terminate the contract for Rs 36,000 crore Tilaiya Ultra Mega Power project in Jharkhand.
The state government plans to take action as per the provisions of the Power Purchase Agreement signed and in consultation with Union Ministry of Power.
This move became apparent after the state government took note of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power’s decision to terminate the contract for Rs 36,000 crore Tilaiya Ultra Mega Power project and prepared a report.
The report carries facts about the project.Though Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power said that it was compelled to terminate the project due to the “ land acquisition proving to be a stumbling block”,the state government thinks differently.
”Mainly because it did not have guts to manufecture power at Rs 1.77 and supply 25 percent of its production to the state government at this rate,it decided to terminte the project”,said a senior officer.
The state government’s report states as follows:
(1)The state government accorded top most priority for creating a conducive environment for promoting industries and infrastructure projects in the State by fast tracking all project related clearances (land, forest and other statutory permissions) for attracting large scale investment in the State for the overall economic development.
(2) In the last 4 months a mechanism at the level of Chief Secretary and Secretary of various departments has been put in place for close monitoring of all the projects through weekly/ fortnightly/ monthly review meetings / video conferences.
(3) State Government’s aforesaid commitment and resultant efforts have resulted in many important projects in the national highway sector, railway sector, coal sector getting clearances on time/ pending issues getting sorted and these have been acknowledged by the Coal Secretary/ Hon’ble Minister, Road & Transport, GoI/ Railway Board, etc.
(4) Regarding power sector projects also a mechanism has been put in place for fast tracking different projects like UMPP, Tilaiya, NTPC’s North Karanpura Project, NTPC’s Coal Mining Project at Pakari-Barwadih, Chati-Bariatu, DVC-Koderma Power Plant, Tata Power’s, Tiruldih Power Plant; DVC-Maithan Phase – II Power Plant; expansion of PTPS (4000 MW) through proposed JV arrangement with NTPC, etc.
(5) Regarding UMPP, Tilaiya, the status of land acquisition are as follows :-
(i) Land requirement for Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP), Tilaiya comprises of 2523 acres for the main plant and 12108 acres for the coal mines.
(ii) For the main plant area, the acquisition process for 470 acres of rayati land is complete and mutation has been done and land handed over to JIPL.
(iii) In respect of forest land of 1220 acres, the stage-II forest clearance has been received and the State Government of Jhakhand has fixed the rate for the cost of land and demand notice is being issued for payment by JIPL by 15-05-2015 to be followed by release of land by the Forest Department, GoJ.
(iv) In respect of Government land of 855 acres, the process for handing over the possession will be completed by 30-06-2015.
(v) For approach road corridor of 106 acres – compliance by JIPL for uploading of proposal on web portal, submission of part – III A by RCCF is pending. Further for ash corridor (5.24 acres) online proposal has to be submitted by JIPL.
(vi) For coal block area JIPL has been asked to submit the application in the revised Performa for the land acquisition under the new LA Act by 05-05-2015.
(6) In respect of JIPL (M/s Reliance Power) the project proponent of UMPP, Tilaiya following issues are required to be highlighted:-
(i) In a detailed review meeting of UMPP, Tilaiya on 17.04.2015 taken by Energy Department, Jharkhand and CEA, the JIPL (M/s Reliance Power) mainly focused on tariff revision which they have filed before CERC. After the bidding process of UMPP the Letter of Intent (LOI) was issued to M/s Reliance Power in Feb. 2009 as per the lowest bid of Rs. 1.77 per unit. It is very obvious that JIPL (M/s Reliance Power) are no longer wanting to maintain their bid tariff of Rs. 1.77 per unit and want a revision of the said tariff for which they have filed a petition before CERC in Sept. 2013. The ground for the said petition as projected by JIPL is increase in the project cost due to increase in land and R&R cost and other inputs. However, it is debatable whether the said grounds are just excuses.
(ii) JIPL (M/s Reliance Power) for the last more than 4 years have not obtained environmental clearance for the said project which the project proponent is supposed to obtain in the beginning phase of the project itself. In fact in the public hearing fixed on the 2nd March, 2015 for the said environment clearance organized by Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board, JIPL did not attend.
(iii) In the detailed review meeting on 17.04.2015 specific timeline (as elaborated above) were fixed so as to complete the entire land acquisition and forest clearance processes by July, 2015. In fact, after the clearance of 1220 acres of forest land JIPL was supposed to pay around Rs. 250 Crores for release of land by the Forest Department, Jharkhand by 15.05.2015.
(iv) For UMPP, Tilaiya the procurers are 18 utilities in 10 States with Jharkhand as the lead procurer with 25% power sharing as per the provisions of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between JIPL and all the procurers. In view of the unilateral action by JIPL (M/s Reliance Power) further necessary action as per the provisions of the Power Purchase Agreement shall be taken in consultation with Union Ministry of Power.
