Dabhol plant capacity to be doubled: Pranab

Expressing satisfaction over progress of the revival plans at the Dabhol power plant, external affairs minister and chairman of the Empowered Group of Ministers on Dabhol, Pranab Mukherjee, announced that he would give an in-principal approval for doubling capacity at Dabhol to 5,000 mw, provided the requisite gas was arranged.

Dabhol is part of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd.

The EGOM, which consists of agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, petroleum minister Murli Deora, power minister Sushilkumar Shinde and minister for science and technology Kapil Sibal, visited the Dabhol plant today.

Maharashtra's chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and energy minister Dilip Walse-Patil were also present during the visit.

Mukherjee was speaking at the review meeting at the site, which was attended by officials from NTPC, GAIL and the state government's energy ministry, who are promoters of RGPPL.

Mukherjee expressed confidence that all three blocks will become operational before the financial year comes to an end, and GAIL and Petronet LNG will able to find gas for the third block.

Only two blocks of 1400 mw are currently running due to insufficient gas. The repair and refurbishment work for the first block, which was operational when Enron was running the Dabhol plant, is in progress.

The first block was damaged due to neglect as the plant was closed for almost three years.

Mukherjee was speaking at the review meeting at the site, which was attended by officials from NTPC, GAIL and the state government's energy ministry, who are promoters of RGPPL.

Mukherjee expressed confidence that all three blocks of the plant will become operational before the end of the current financial year and GAIL and Petronet LNG will able to find gas for the third block.

Currently, only two blocks of 1400 mw are running due to insufficient gas. Repair and refurbishment work for the first block, which was operational when Enron was running the Dabhol plant, is still on.

The first block was damaged due to neglect when the plant was closed for almost three years.