Centre to buy Dabhol Power Project

The Centre will ‘‘purchase’’ the Dabhol Power Project (DPP) and start generating electricity within three months, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said.

The Maharashtra Government would submit its proposal for purchasing electricity from Dabhol project, he told a press conference on Sunday, adding the Centre would supply power at Rs 2.20 per unit. Pawar said the Centre has set up a Group of Ministers (GoM), under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to decide on the Dabhol Power Project, of which he is a member. A proposal of the Centre taking over the Dabhol project was discussed by the GoM,

Pawar added. The actual process to purchase the project will take about two to three months, he said.

Pawar’s statement has given a new hope for the revival of the project in which huge funds have been blocked. The Dabhol plant has been shut since May 2001 after a dispute between Enron and its sole power buyer-the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

Dabhol Power project has two phases. The first phase has the capacity of 740 MW, which was commissioned on May 13, 1999, before it was shut down after the collapse of Enron, its main romoter.