Mumbai: The Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-Adag) seems to be planning a coal-fired power plant at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, next to the proposed gas-fired plant at the heart of the gas dispute between the warring Ambani brothers. The company strenuously denied any such proposal existed.
Optimum use: The project site of Reliance Power in Dadri. It’s not clear whether the proposed coal-based power plant is a Plan B or meant to be a supplementary unit aimed at better utilization of infrastructure. Keith Bedford/Bloomberg
The denials by R-Adag’s Reliance Power Ltd came in the face of confirmations by a state government official and a Union government letter, besides off-the-record corroboration by three of the company’s executives.
The plan was confirmed by the UP Pollution Control Board, whose environmental approval is mandatory. The company submitted its environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the 1,320MW plant in December 2007, C.S. Bhatt, member secretary on the UP Pollution Control Board, said over phone. “The NoC (no-objection certificate) for Reliance’s coal-based plant in Dadri is still pending,” he said.
Apart from this, Mint reviewed the copy of a letter from the Union ministry of environment and forests to R-Adag, prescribing the terms of reference for such an EIA report on the 1,320MW coal-based plant, indicating that a proposal regarding the unit had been made to the Centre at some point. Mint has also seen a recent presentation by Reliance Infrastructure’s adviser on environment issues, Murari Lal, that includes the project among Reliance Power’s proposed units.
Reliance Power blamed misinformation by the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) aimed at deflecting criticism over the gas dispute.
“No coal-based project is being pursued by Reliance Power at Dadri. This false propaganda is deliberately being spread by RIL in an attempt to divert attention from its shameful conduct in dishonouring its gas supply commitments for our Dadri project,” stated an email response from a Reliance Power spokesman on Saturday, making the charge that RIL’s actions were “delaying the setting up of over 8,000MW of new power capacity, which would have substantially reduced power cuts in Delhi and Northern India”.
RIL’s external spokesman Manoj Warrier dismissed Reliance Power’s comments against it as “completely baseless and malicious”, in an email response and declined to offer any further elaboration.
Three R-Adag insiders confirmed that the thermal unit was being planned and also apprised Mint of its progress.
The Ambani brothers have been locked in a row over the gas-fired 7,480MW Dadri power plant, with Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) demanding 28 million standard cu. m per day of gas from RIL’s Krishna-Godavari D6 fields for 17 years at a rate 44% lower than the government-mandated price, rooting its claims in a 2005 family demerger pact between the brothers.