The Centre has asked the Uttarakhand government to pay Rs 75 crore to NHPC to resume work on the 420 Mw Lakhwar Vyasi multipurpose project on the Yamuna near here.
In a letter, the power ministry asked the Uttarakhand government to make the payment to NHPC so that all necessary clearances to the project could be made. “We now have to make this payment to NHPC so as to resume work on the project as early as possible,” said a top government official.
The move came despite the Uttarakhand government’s objection that only Rs 43.184 crore had been authenticated by the NHPC. In a letter to Union Power Secretary H S Bhrahma last year, Uttarakhand Principal Secretary, Energy Shatrughan Singh had said the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL), which was allotted the project last year, was ready to pay the NHPC Rs 43.184 crore that had been authenticated by the central power utility through its audited account.
Singh had further contended that for the payment of additional sum of Rs 29.888 crore, CEA (Central Electricity Authority) might be made the sole arbitrator. If the CEA recommended payment of the additional amount, the same could promptly be paid by UJVNL, Singh had said. He noted that the expenditure had to be included in DPR, which had to be approved by the CEA as the project was a national project for which sizeable amount of money had to come from the Centre as grant for irrigation and drinking water components that would fulfil the needs of states like Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
NHPC had sought from UJVNL a sum of Rs 75 crore for preparing DPR and carrying out other works of the project. But UJVNL raised objections on the additional demand of Rs 29.886 crore shown as spent by NHPC on overhead/supervision charges at 15 per cent to the tune of Rs 9.53 crore and cost of capital at 14 per cent to the tune of Rs 17 crore.
When the project was handed over to NHPC, Rs 244 crore (approximately) was spent by the state government but as a gesture of goodwill, it had not asked for any interest on the capital amount which was actually spent on this project for completing about 30 per cent of the civil work.
When contacted, UJVNL chairman Yogendra Prasad said UJVNL was now ready to pay the full amount of Rs 75 crore to NHPC. “We will make the payment as we want to resume the work as early as possible,” Prasad said. The cost overrun and inordinate delays has already plagued the project on the Yamuna near Dakpathar, 55 km from here.