Lanco's power project comes under Mayawati's scanner

After the 1,200-acre special economic zone at Noida and the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's gas-based power plant at Dadri, Lanco Kundapalli's 1,000-Mw Anpara C power project in Sonebhadra district of Uttar Pradesh has come under the scanner of Chief Minister Mayawati.

The state government has ordered review of the whole process of the award of the project to the private sector through tariff-based bidding.

Official sources said the CM had also sought the information as to why the offer of the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation for funding the project was rejected.

The project was awarded to Hyderabad-based private power company Lanco Kundapalli, promoted by Vijaywada Congress MP L Rajagopal.

In accordance with the Letter of Acceptance issued by the UP government to Lanco on September 27 last year, the land for the project was to be transferred to the company within eight months or by May 26 this year. But so far no headway has been made in this direction.

The project has been in the eye of the storm from the time the Mulayam government took the decision to hand it over to the private sector by setting aside a soft loan deal signed with the JBIC.

The JBIC had agreed to fund up to 85 per cent of the project cost (around Rs 3,000 crore) at an interest rate of Rs 1.3 per cent payable over a period of 30 years.