Corruption: AAP says Rs 18K crore being blown on Singaji-2 power project

Special Correspondent

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: The phase 1 of the Shree Singaji Thermal Power Project is a failure and now the Madhya Pradesh government is about to blow Rs 18,000 crore on the Phase-II of the project, MP unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has charged.

The party has further accused the state government of massive corruption in awarding the tender of the project to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Co Ltd.

A memorandum has been submitted to the governor Ram Naresh Yadav seeking scrapping of the phase 2 of Singaji Power project.

“Points raised by Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) regarding reduction in cost of project were ignored and L&T was granted tender because it is one of the biggest donors of BJP,” AAP state convener Alok Agarwal said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Documents that prove the points on corruption were also made available to the media persons.

Agarwal said the main issue regarding the Sree Singaji power project is lack of coal linkage. The phase I project has to get the coal from Korba in Chhattisgarh, which is 1000 km from Khandwa. This has escalated the cost of power generation and supply (Rs 21 per unit) too much.

This has led to a situation where the Singaji Plant is operating at bare minimum plant load factor (PLF) – only 17% for the first three months of 2016-17 and average of about 24% for last three years. Of the two units, only one has worked for only one month in the current financial year Agarwal said.

The AAP leader said that in such situation, starting phase 2 of the project is sheer wastage of public money. “And the cost of the project is as high as Rs 18,000 crore. We want to know what is the reason for taking such a illogical and wasteful decision,” Agarwal said.