Government to offer railways 26 per cent stake in DVC's plant at Raghunathpur

NEW DELHI: The government plans to offer a 26 per cent stake in generation to-irrigation utility DVC's coal-fired power plant at Raghunath pur in West Bengal, which is expected to be acquired by Central generation utility NTPC, to the Railways.
Power minister Piyush Goyal is likely to make the offer to railway minister Suresh Prabhu soon. He is of the view that buying into the project in Purulia district of the state would provide a captive source to the railways and reduce its daily power consumption costs.

Goyal said NTPC's takeover of the project will benefit all stakeholders, including the two states - West Bengal and Jharkhand. He has already spoken to the chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Raghuvar Das, who are believed to have agreed to the plan.

DVC has not been able to complete the project because of lack of funds. It has a debt of Rs 30,000 crore and Rs 8,000 crore arrears - much of it from Jharkhand. The firm may not be keen on selling the project to NTPC but the proceeds could reduce its financial burden. Goyal said the government is working to ensure DVC gets its outstanding from the Jharkhand government soon.

The Centre is of the view that Raghunathpur has remained a "half-baked" project for DVC and selling it off to NTPC would resolve the problem for DVC as well as for NTPC. There are two phases of development. The first phase has two units of 600 mw each, while the second phase consists of two units of 660 mw.

Only one unit of first phase is operational. The second unit is stuck in the absence of infrastructure for water and coal supply . The second phase too is stuck, though contracts for equipment have been placed with state-run power gear-maker Bhel and BMR. But there are structural problems in the way orders have been placed.