Ratnagiri Gas to get LNG by April

Liquefied natural gas for Ratnagiri Gas and Power, formerly known as Dabhol, is expected to be made available by April, power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said today.

The minister added that the National Thermal Power Corporation is looking at importing LNG.

"Till such time, we have the option to run the Dabhol power plant on naptha. But that being very costly, it is not a very viable option," Shinde said.

Qatar had agreed to supply additional 1.2 million tonne LNG on short-term basis for the Dabhol project.

Shinde said the December 31 deadline to handover the five ultra mega power projects to their developers, will be met only for the Sasan and Mundhra ultra mega projects.

The rest will be completed in phases, for which the government will notify new dates, he said. The government plans to bid for as many as seven such projects of 4,000 mw each to private and public sector players.

Each project will entail an investment of Rs 16,000 crorefor setting up generation capacity and an equal investment in transmission links.

Two of the projects "� Sasan and Mundra "� have crossed the initial bidding round, for which 28 bids have been made, both by local as well as foreign players. NTPC, Reliance Energy, and Tata Power are among the prominent bidders.

The initiative is aimed at adding around 28,000 mw generation capacity, to raise the country's capacity to 2,00,000 mw by 2012.