Procedural roadblocks, loose ends force Reliance Power out of Tilaya

NEW DELHI - May 11, 2015 - PRLog -- Reliance Power’s Tilaya project, which it had acquired in 2009, is no longer a ‘work in progress,’ but a ‘closed chapter’. The company has made an official statement citing inordinate delays in the handing over of land for setting up the power project and coal mines as being the primary cause for the pullout.

The Anil Ambani-led group declared that the power purchase accord required handing over of the procured land by February 2010, but whopping delays have stalled that. "However, the required land is yet to be made available. Even the forest land in the power station area, for which the Stage-II Forest Clearance was accorded by the central government way back in November 2010, has not been handed over till now”, the company said in a statement.

The move is said to have cut down by 36,000 crore the future capital expenditure of the company. "As regards the coal block, the land acquisition process is yet to get initiated, for which the application was submitted way back in February 2009," it added, referring to the decision taken by its wholly owned subsidiary, Jharkhand Integrated Power Ltd. (JIPL) to drop its accord with the Procurers.

The company also disclosed that it had had as many as 25 unyielding review meetings with the state government over some five-and-half years that failed to infuse any momentum into the process. It also estimated, based on the current standing of the project, that completion would have taken until 2023-24.

Incidentally, this comes on the back of Reliance Power’s successful kicking in of all six units of yet another mega project in Madhya Pradesh, the 3,960-MW Sasan project. "It may also be mentioned that five units of 660-MW each totaling 3,300 MW were commissioned in just about 12 months. The Sasan project is the largest integrated power plant cum coal mining project at a single location in the world, involving investment of over Rs.27,000 crore.”, the company said.

The company has, in a first phase of capital investments, pumped in Rs,50,000 crore that has yielded six operating plants with a cumulative capacity of 6,000 MW. It also states that it is now focusing on clean and green energy through hydro power projects.