The Hindu

Udupi, Apr 25: The Nandikur Janajagriti Samiti has urged Governor Rameshwar Thakur to take steps to stop work at the coal-based power project at Yellur in Udupi district “till all fresh statutory clearances are obtained by the proponents”.

In a memorandum submitted to Mr. Thakur on April 12, executive president of the samiti Balakrishna Shetty said the State Government had permitted Udupi Power Corporation Limited, formerly known as Nagarjuna Power Corporation, to set up a 1,015-MW coal-based power project at Yellur village.

The State and the electricity supply companies (ESCOMS) had signed a power purchase agreement. The State was providing 80 per cent escrow cover on the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) approved project cost of Rs. 4,299.12 crore.

The State was also providing Rs. 400 crore of annual guarantees and revolving irrevocable letter of credit apart from exemption of various rates, taxes and duties though the industry was not eligible for it and was also not conceived through competitive bidding, the memorandum said. It had come to light that the company had been unlawfully permitted to change the project design and increase its capacity to 1500 MW with substandard Chinese equipment as against the originally approved BHEL equipment, at a cost of over Rs. 1,200 crore.

Allowing the project to increase the capacity at this stage violated the prevailing electoral code of conduct in the first place, it said.

The project had abandoned the scheme of the approved 1,015 MW capacity and was going ahead with the work on a 1,200 MW plant with 300 MW in the second phase. The project scheme was new and had to be assessed by the authorities.

As all activities being carried out at the site were illegal, they should be stopped till all approvals were obtained by the project authority, the memorandum said.