Maharashtra government’s attempt to privatise irrigation project has received a major jolt as state water regulatory authority has asked state government owned Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) to withdraw advertisement seeking expression of interest from corporate within a fortnight.
It may be recalled that, state government called bids from corporate for privatisation of the Neera-Deoghar dam in Pune district, earlier last year.
State government wanted to privatise the project as it had already spent around Rs. 467 crore on the irrigation project, which had a storage capacity of 13 thousand million cubic meter (TMC) and project and needed around Rs. 1467 crore to complete the construction of dam and built distribution channels. But due to paucity of funds, the project was getting delayed and the government funds had got locked up in the project.
State government’s attempt to privatise irrigation sector aroused lot of curiosity from corporate sector as major corporate like Reliance Industries, ITC, GVK, Godrej picked up EOI forms from MKVDC.
However privatisation efforts could not move ahead as there were differences between corporate and government on issues like viability gap funding, tariff structure, share of various sectors like local self government institution, agriculture and industrial sector to use the water.
However Pune-based think tank Prayas which works on the issues relegated to energy and water filed a petition before the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) claiming MKVDC has transgressed its jurisdiction and given assurances through bid document to prospective bidders on issues like tariff and allocation of water to various sectors, which is purgative of the regulator.
Accepting the arguments put forward by Prayas, MWRRA ruled, MKVDC must withdraw its advertisement calling EOI within 15 days.
Besides this, the water regulator has also directed the government to amend its notification which allows MKVDC to call bids on built operate and transfer (BOT) basis for completion of irrigation projects.
This revised notification shall include role of the regulator in clear terms on issues fixing criteria for selection of project and the developer, vetting the revenue model, fixing entitlement of various users, fixing tariff for various users. The MWRRA has also asked the government to come up with revised notification within three months before it calls EOI, once again.
