Water woes now to trip Dabhol

The jinxed Dabhol power plant, which secured fuel earlier this month and started generation, is once again on the verge of a shutdown owing to a water supply problem.

The water supplier to the plant, owned by Ratnagiri Gas and Power (RGPPL), is state power utility Mahagenco, whose pumping station at the Shirale village on Vasishthi river supplies 2300 cubic feet per second to RGPPL's power generation plant through nearly 40 kilometer pipeline, for using it in the cooling towers as well as for employees housing colony.

Immediately after the Dabhol plant become functional on November 1, contract workers at the pumping station started demanding the payment of PF, and disrupted water supply to the plant.

A senior RGPPL official said, "Owing to non-availability of water, we have stopped water supply to our employees housing colony and reduced the power generation from 350 mega watt (MW) to around 175 to 200 mw but if it is not restored in a day or two we might have to shut down it completely".

It may be recalled that, after Dabhoal Power Company's parent company Enron went bust in 2001, the power plant remained idle for almost four years. After a long drawn legal battle, RGPPL took over the plant last year.

After carrying out extensive repair works, plant could be started for only for one and half months this year in May. But after the summer peak demand crisis was over Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) stopped buying power from Dabhol plant complaining that power is too expensive. Besides this RGPPL also ran out of naphtha and was unable to secure alternate fuel supplies.

However after central government waived off import and exise duty on the fuel (naphtha) MSEDCL agreed to buy power from the RGPPL at Rs 5.25 per unit and plant became functional since November 1.

Mahagenco's managing director Ajoy Mehta said, "after RGPPL has taken over the plant, running the pumping station and maintaining pipeline is RGPPL's responsibility but as a goodwill gesture we have shown willingness to run the pump house temporarily".

He further said, we have requested the district collector of Ratnagiri to intervene and ensure smooth functioning of the pumping station and pipeline.

The district collector has called the meeting of all concerned parties on Thursday.