Rs 204-cr fine imposed on Reliance Infrastructure
Kiran Deep
Tribune News Service

Yamunanagar, April 9
Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) has imposed a penalty of Rs 204.46 crore on Reliance Infrastructure (EPC contractor) for delay in commissioning of two units of the Deenbandhu Chhottu Ram Thermal Power Plant (600MW), Yamunanagar.

Out of the total penalty, Rs 158.19 crore has already been recovered, while Rs 46.27 crore is yet to be recovered.

Even after two years of commissioning of the two units of 300 MW each, the HPGCL has not taken over the units of the Yamunanagar thermal power station and some demonstration tests of unit-1(300MW) and unit-2(300MW) are still pending. These tests had to be completed by the Reliance Infrastructure before the final takeover of the thermal plant by the HPGCL and this fact came to light under the RTI Act.

The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission had recently passed an adverse comment on delay in commissioning of the Yamunanagar power station. Similarly, the CAG report has also indicted the HPGCL for the delayed commissioning and resulting in losses.

According to information given by the HPGCL to an RTI application, the commercial operation of unit I was declared on April 14, 2008, whereas the performance guarantee (PG) test was carried out on July 12, 2008. In case of unit II, commercial operations began on June 24, 2008, while the PG test was carried out on August 12, 2008.

However, the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) did not accept these claimed dates of the PG tests. Besides, the HERC stated that there was an abnormal delay in completion of the PG tests, due to which the units had not been taken over by the HPGCL, so far.

The HPGCL, through under secretary-general-cum-SPIO, HPGCL, Panchkula, had provided answers in response to queries raised by one Gurnek Singh Brar under the RTI Act. He had sought information from the HPGCL last month and received the reply yesterday, a copy of which is available with The Tribune.