Land acquisition delays may push Navi Mumbai airport take-off to 2017
First phase of the airport was scheduled to start by 2015 cost escalation to take toll, say experts
By Aneesh Phadnis
Due to inordinate delays in land acquisition and securing environment clearance, among others, the second airport in Mumbai, the Navi Mumbai International Airport ( NMIA), may not take off before 2017, according to experts. The first phase of the airport was supposed to be operational by end-2014 or early 2015.
More than the delays, it will be cost escalation that will hurt the project, said industry observers. The first phase of the project is pegged at about Rs 9,000 crore. Any further delays could push up the costs, experts warned.
While the project has got environment clearance — which took a good three years — it is still grappling with issues related to land acquisition.
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Private equity firms' money stuck in Asian Genco projects
Singapore-based firm's projects here stuck in diverse controversies, cost overruns
By Dev Chatterjee
In May 2010, Singapore-based Asian Genco Pte Ltd announced it had secured investments worth $425 million from a clutch of marquee private equity (PE) funds, to invest in the Indian power sector.
It was a big surprise. The funds included General Atlantic, Morgan Stanley, Norwest Partners, Everstone and Goldman Sachs, and not many had heard of Asian Genco.
The financing by the PE biggies was the biggest equity transaction in the power sector till 2010 and touted as endorsing the fundamentals of the sector in India. Today, all the marquee investors are wondering at the fate of their investments -- most projects of Asian Genco in India have been delayed considerably and face massive cost overruns.
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NTPC-RIL dispute on Gujarat power plants stuck in HC
The Cabinet Committee on Investment is to expedite clearance and implementation of projects stalled or delayed.
NTPC took RIL to court in December 2005, after the latter would not sign a gas sale and purchase agreement ( GSPA) because of a dispute over a clause relating to unlimited liability. It contends expansion of its Kawas and Gandhar olants have been delayed indefinitely, thanks to RIL.
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Vedanta Aluminium's trials with regulatory approvals continue
By Abhineet Kumar
Vedanta Aluminium’s refinery in Lanjigarh, Odisha, which was shut earlier this month due to unavailability of bauxite
Early this month, billionaire Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Group was forced to shut its one million tonnes per annum alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha’s Kalahandi district due to unavailability of bauxite, 15 years after state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation signed over its rights to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills to the group firm.
The group has invested Rs 30,000 crore in six years to set up the aluminium business under Vedanta Aluminium, believing it would be able to get approvals for captive bauxite mines by the time the facilities get commissioned. Eventually, it commissioned a 1 mtpa refiner, a 0.5 mtpa smelter and a 1,215 Mw captive power plant, but approval for bauxite mining did not come.
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Trouble brews for Utkal alumina project as locals raise new demands
By Hrusikesh Mohanty and Dillip Satapathy
Even after 20 years and investments of over Rs 5,000 crore, the 1.5-million-tonne alumina refinery project of Utkal Alumina International Ltd (UAIL), a subsidiary of the Kumar Mangalam Birla’s Hindalco, is yet to see the light of the day.
As the company gears up to give a final push to complete the refinery work by the first quarter of 2013, renewed call of the project opponents to intensify their stir against the projects signals fresh troubles ahead for the company.
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