After 5 years of effort and Rs 10,000 crore-plus, the Dabhol power plant is sputtering to life. But will it live?
Ratnagiri Gas and Power (RGPPL) is learning a rather unpalatable truth. It costs a lot more to fix a mistake 18 years down the line than the original project cost.
GMR Power set up its first 200-MW plant in 1998, but it has projected a power generation capacity of over 12,500 MW by 2016. Reliance Power, which came into existence in 2007, plans to generate 25,000 MW by 2015. And Adani Power, which went public just three years ago, already has 990 MW capacity at Mundra, which is being scaled up to 4,620 MW by 2012.
For the moment, the government does not want to allow private companies to develop and operate nuclear power plants independently, but it surely wants private players to jump on the bandwagon to gain experience in the sector.
Sources say the Centre, having got the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill ratified by Parliament, is now preparing a road map for institution building.
If Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has his way, the state could boast of 50,000 MW of new power plants by the end of 2020 — investments over Rs 1.75 lakh crore could come into the state, which is rich in natural resources but ranks 11th in terms of per capita income in India.
In April 2007, the top brass of Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) was given a lengthy presentation on the Chinese power market by a team from equity research firm CLSA, which had just done a one-of-its-kind study of that market.
Ahead of the much-awaited Suresh Tendulkar committee report on poverty estimation, another committee appointed by the rural development ministry has come out with its report. The committee, headed by N.C. Saxena, says that the percentage of rural population below the poverty line (BPL) could be as high as 50 per cent
