The UJVN Limted, a state-run hydropower company, has settled all the claims with the National Projects Construction Corporation Limited (NPCC), a public sector unit, for the construction of the Rs 936-crore-Vyasi hydel project with a capacity of 120 Mw.
Under the agreement, NPCC would resume the construction of the remaining civil work and that of power house without seeking its old claims, UJVN managing director G P Patel said.
“We have entered into a negotiated settlement with NPCC which has withdrawn all its old claims pertaining to some civil work,” said Patel.
The project that began in 1986 was abandoned in 1991 due to paucity of funds in the undivided Uttar Pradesh. The UJVN has also invited separate tenders which would be constructed with an approximate cost of Rs 360 crore.
UJVN had been gearing to build the Vyasi project following its techno-economic clearance from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). With all the clearances, UJVN is now hoping to resume the rema-ining 60-70 per cent of the project work which is hanging fire for the past two decades due to paucity of funds.
UJVN is now hoping to complete the Vyasi project in four-five years. B C K Mishra, UJVN Director (Operation) told Business Standard that the total investment in the Vyasi project would be around Rs 936 crore since 30 to 35 per cent of the work had been completed earlier.
The cost of construction of the Vyasi project would now be around Rs 9 crore per Mw which is being seen as not very high vis-a-vis high inflation during the past few years.
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In the Maneri Bhali-II project, UJVN had spent Rs 2,300 crore with the cost of the project coming around Rs 7.5 crore per Mw.
“As compared to Rs 7.5 crore few years ago, the cost of construction of a hydel project has not increased much,” said Mishra. However, he said the cost of hydel projects is area specific.
In 2009, UJVN paid Rs 74 crore to the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) as part of the liabilities after taking over the 420-Mw Lakhwar-Vyasi project. Thereafter, UJVN bifurcated the project in two parts — 120-Mw Vyasi and 300-Mw Lakhwar.
After commissioning the state’s first big project — 304-Mw Maneri Bhali-II in 2008, UJVN suffered a big setback when its two major projects — 480 Mw Pala Maneri and 381 Mw Bhaironghati were scrapped by the Centre on environmental and religious grounds.
Since then, UJVN is left with no big project. “Let’s hope that UJVN will complete this project in time,” said Patel.