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'Enron issue not to hit pvt investment in power'

The ongoing wrangle between the Maharashtra State Electricity Board and the Enron-promoted Dabhol Power Company would not affect future private investments in the power sector, Union power secretary A K Basu said in Calcutta on Thursday.

"Enron has run into rough weather due to a number of reasons, but we have 19 other hassle-free private power projects running simultaneously in the country," Basu said at a seminar on 'Current Power Scenario in India'.

Asserting that besides these 19 foreign and domestic projects, 20 other private projects of 5000 MW were also in the pipeline, he expressed optimism that flow of foreign investments in the sector would not be hampered due to a solitary troubled venture.

Basu said that the Centre was facilitating discussions between the Maharashtra government and Dabhol Power Company and expected a breakthrough soon.

"We are very clear in our stand. This is a state project and we will only facilitate bilateral discussions. Of course, both parties have to make some compromises to come to a mutually acceptable solution," he said.

Basu said MSEB had cited trebled costs of naphtha, rising dollar and poor pace of industrialisation in the state as impediments to purchasing power at Dabhol's proposed tariff.

Dabhol, on the other hand, was willing to slash tariff rates from Rs 7 per unit to an 'acceptable' figure if the state government bought 90 per cent of the power generated by the plant. "Some solution has to be found out," Basu said.

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