The empowered group of ministers (EGOM) chaired by external affairs Pranab Mukherjee today decided to work on a new strategy to resolve the Dabhol impasse. Power generated from one block of the plant would be sold to a trading company and the premium earned through this measure would be used to cushion the increase in costs due to delays in getting the plant started on time on account of non availability of gas. As per an early unit cost of around Rs 3 this cost is now expected to be Rs 3.2 per unit due to an increase in the revival costs faced by Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd (RGPPL). This is the second meet of the EGOM in the last one month where the Centre is trying to get the plant back in operation. At the EGOM meet in January, petroleum ministry informed that they would be able to arrange short-term supplies of gas for the project, enough to run only two of the three blocks of the first phase of the 740 mw power plant. But at the same time, the revival cost have also doubled from around Rs 870 crore to Rs 1957 crore. Now as lenders to the project are unwilling to bear the rising cost, the project restart was under cloud. The sources said RGPPL has already defaulted in its interest during construction (IDC) payments to Power Finance Corporation, which is providing a term loan of Rs 1400 crore. This is inclusive of a bridge loan of Rs 400 crore. PFC also refused to disburse loans as the PPA and fuel supply agreement are not yet in place. At today's meet, sources said that the external affairs minister again expressed anger at the government for not being able to work out a viable solution. In fact at one of the earlier EGOMs, Mukherjee repeatedly reminded officials and other ministers present in the meet that the EGOM on Dabhol was the first GoM to have been set up by the UPA government and that it would reflect very poorly on this government if they were unable to revive the power project in a viable manner.
