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'Centre ready to persuade NTPC to run DPC'

The Centre is ready to persuade National Thermal Power Corporation "to run and if required complete" the idle power plant of Enron's Dabhol Power Company, but purely on commercial considerations, Union power secretary R V Shahi said on Thursday.

"If need be, the ministry will prevail upon and persuade NTPC to run DPC's 658-mw phase-I on a management fee or on purely commercial basis.

"It could also complete the remaining construction (of phase-II) of the idle facility, but the IDBI led lenders will have to bear the cost," Shahi told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by Independent Power Producers Association of India in Mumbai.

He said the pending issue of restarting DPC could be solved only if the Maharashtra government, the state electricity board (MSEB) and Industrial development Bank of India arrive at a consensus over the purchase price and file a joint petition before Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission.

"More seriousness is needed on the part of state and MSEB, and we have been trying to impress upon them that one has to first arrive at a starting point of a settlement, wherein everybody foregoes their previous stand and comes together to file a joint petition for an acceptable DPC tariff with MERC," Shahi said.

He said for the completion of the project, the Centre also plans to seek help from the $3-billion project's original contractors General Electric and Bechtel.

"GE and Bechtel have the software, the manuals...we will seek their co-operation in restarting the plant," Shahi said.

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