Reliance Energy's Agra project gathers pace

On the heels of a shake-down from the Uttar Pradesh government over its poor performance in the Rs 84 crore Agra rural electrification project, Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Energy has picked up pace on the job.

According to Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd. sources, Reliance Energy had entered into an agreement with the UP Power Corporation Ltd in August last year to electrify more than 600 villages of four districts of the Agra division "" Agra, Aligarh, Hathras and Mathura "" under the Accelerated Rural Electrification Project (AREP) of the central government.

But after initial hiccups, over the past almost 10 months, the company managed to achieve 46 per cent of the electrification target while other companies like Accurate and SPML that had joined the fray to electrify villages in other areas like Etah, Firozabad and Mainpuri were hardly close to completing 35 per cent of the target and due to this they had come close to losing their work orders.

According to the sources, the electrification project for these four districts was to cost Rs 84.35 crore and Reliance Energy was chosen to be the ideal candidate for such a massive job of electrifying the 612 revenue villages of these four districts as the project was to be completed before March 2007, and no other company could take up the project that also included the construction of seven 33 Kv electric sub-stations in the four districts.

In the other districts of Agra division, sources said, three companies "" Pioneer, Accurate and Subhash Projects "" are currently working on rural electrification, with Pioneer and Accurate Transformers Ltd jointly electrifying 767 villages of Etah, IVRCL taking charge of Bundelkhand, and Kolkata-based Subhash Projects Ltd taking over the electrification of 616 villages of Mainpuri and Firozabad with the cost of Rs 84 crore.

Out of these companies, only IVRCL and Reliance had been able to achieve the target set for them with IVRCL surpassing Reliance by completing more than 50 per cent of its work despite being a late-comer in the fray.

At the pace that Reliance Energy is going at present, sources said, the firm will be able to achieve the target by this December. The projected date of 100 per cent completion of the electricity was fixed at March 2007.