Yadadri Power Plant: BHEL assures two units if environmental clearance comes by April
BHEL officials informed that the works worth Rs.20,444 crore were handed over to the company and the remaining works were taken up by Genco and other companies.
Hyderabad: The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has said that if the State government managed to get environmental clearance for the 4,000 MW Yadadri Supercritical Thermal Power Project by April, it would complete two units by September, two more units by December and the remaining unit by May 2025.
The assurance came during a review meeting held by Deputy Chief Minister and Energy Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka with the officials of BHEL and TSGenco at the Secretariat on Friday. BHEL officials informed that the works worth Rs.20,444 crore were handed over to the company and the remaining works were taken up by Genco and other companies.
The BHEL officials further stated that of the works given to them, work worth Rs.15,860 crore were completed and that the company had so far received Rs.14,400 crore from the State government and a balance of Rs.1167 crore was still pending. The previous government did not make payments in installments and 91 percent payment was made in March last year, the officials said, adding that due to the non-payment of funds on time, they were not able to make payments to sub-contractors, due to which the work was not done smoothly.
The Genco officials informed that an agreement was signed with BHEL on June 6, 2015 for the construction of Yadadri Power Plant at an estimated cost of Rs.34,500 crore, and a work order was issued in October 2017. According to the agreement, two units were to be completed by October 2020 and three more units were to be completed by October 2021 and a total of 4,000 megawatts of electricity was to be started, they said.
The Energy Minister wanted to know why the project was handed over to BHEL through a nomination method instead of inviting tenders in the competitive bidding system. He directed Energy Secretary S.A.M Rizvi to submit a comprehensive report with the estimates made by Genco for the construction of Yadadri Power Station, the rate quoted by BHEL, the negotiations with BHEL regarding the prices and the value of the agreement.
BHEL Chairman and Managing Director Koppu Sada Sivamurthy, Director Tajinder Gupta and other senior officials were present.
The Southern Zone Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had suspended the Environmental Clearance on September 30, 2022, following complaints lodged by two NGOs, Conservation Action Trust (Mumbai) and Samatha (Visakhapatnam), alleging that the project was being constructed in violation of regulations. However, the tribunal allowed Genco to continue its construction, but barred it from undertaking a trial run.
