UP extends power MoUs signed by Maya
The Uttar Pradesh government has extended the MoUs signed by the Mayawati government in the power sector by a maximum of 18 months.
A Cabinet decision in this regard was taken on Thursday in view of the acute power crisis in the state. Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Anil Kumar Gupta told reporters that the government had decided on the extension because it did not wish to face accusations of not giving the private developers a chance to get coal linkages. He clarified that extension of agreements by 18 months was the maximum time-period and has been granted taking into account the pan-India shortage of coal and delay in coal supply linkages at the level of Central government.
All private developers have asked for varying time ranging from six months to 24 months on this basis. However, after the expiry of extension period, the government would have the option of the forfeiture of security amount deposited by private developers. Different developers have requested for varying extension time.
“Till now these projects were on paper, the government is providing them a window to come on ground in implementation mode, developers would be granted extension of time by the period as requested by them, maximum up to 18 months,” IIDC said. These pending power projects were to be established through MoU, which had the provision of forfeiture of security if the development work was not started within the stipulated time period that is expiring soon.
Of these nine projects, the state Cabinet also granted approval for change of location of three projects to facilitate water availability. Projects to be developed at Bargadh, Farukkhabad and Ghazipur have been relocated at Lalitpur, Barabanki and Mirzapur respectively. The MoUs signed for generating a total of 10,970 MW power have been assessed and, keeping in mind the yawning gap of power demand and generation, the government has gone ahead with the grace period, the IIDC said.
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