Mamata wants to revive MAMC

The revival of the closed Mining and Allied Machinery Corporation (MAMC) in Durgapur was discussed by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee with shareholder Coal India Ltd on Thursday. The discussions were confirmed by CIL Chairman N C Jha after the meeting. He said the transfer of MAMC land would have to take place for starting cleaning and development work.
"We expect the land transfer to take place next month", he said.
CIL holds 26% in MAMC, BEML 48% and DVC 26%. The consortium had already spent Rs 100 crore for acquiring the assets of the company closed in 2001 after a BIFR winding up order.
He said the chief minister had also asked CIL subsidiary Eastern Coalfields to take steps to check illegal mining.
The chief minister also urged CIL to indulge in CSR activity by planting trees, Jha added.

No forcible acquisition, not even for power plants: Mamta

KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee is not prepared to evoke land-losing pangs by invoking the Land Acquisition Act 1894 -- not even for necessities like electricity. In a meeting on Friday, the chief minister, who is also the power minister, decided that her government will not acquire land for power projects through the centuries-old Act that calls for forcible acquisition.
Mamata has already set up a two-member land committee comprising former land and land reforms commissioner Debabrata Bandopadhyay and barrister Somendra Nath Basu to formulate the most acceptable land acquisition policy. But the only land acquisition project that will get a green signal in the near future seems to be for the 6,000 acres to build embankments in Aila-hit Sundarbans. Here, too, land will be taken only after prior consultations at the gram samsad, gram panchayat level and will be offered government jobs (subject to appropriate vacancies). The solatium amount will be increased to 60% from 30%.

The chief minister has given a go-ahead to this project considering the vulnerability of the islanders of Sundarbans. She wants to start the work by September 1.
However, Mamata doesn't feel the same way for power projects. Last Friday, she held a meeting with officials of power department, the state power utilities, DVC and NTPC to take stock of the state's dismal power situation. "At the meeting, the chief minister made it very clear that not an inch of land will be acquired for power projects under the current Land Acquisition Act," said a source in the know. Officials cited the ongoing Katwa plants (units 1 and 2), each with 800 MW capacity -- saying land acquisition was the need of the hour for these plants. Bengal's projected shortfall in peak seasons -- as pointed out by the Eastern Regional Power Committee (ERPC) under the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) - will be 1,349 MW in 2012; 2,194 MW in 2013; 3074 MW in 2014 and 4050 MW in 2015.
With the Katwa power plant project underway, the state power utility needs a total 1,100 acres of which 450 is in government possession. Mamata stressed on consultation even if that takes some time for the power project that is already two years behind schedule.
Last September, WBPDCL decided to transfer the Katwa projects to NTPC because of funds crunch. But the state government must go ahead with the acquisition and hand over the land to NTPC. Around Rs 134 crore have already been sunk in.
As per CEA's stock-taking report last year, West Bengal, which used to proclaim itself a power-surplus regions once upon a time, failed to equip itself against the huge shortfall. Referring to the Planning Commission's stern views of Bengal's power planning, CEA observed that the state had known since 2002 that the average increase in power demand is 450 MW annually.
And now the government's latest stand would affect 5800-MW projects that are in the pipeline. All these have been projected in the ongoing 11th Five-Year Plan.

DVC GOT NEW CHAIRMAN

R N Sen today took charge as the chairman of the Damodar Valley Corporation, company sources said here.

Sen was earlier the CEO of NSPCL, a joint venture of NTPC&SAIL that manages captive power plants of SAIL's production centres.

DVC got its new chairman nearly after a year. DVC Officers Association welcomed his appointment and thanked the central government for appointing an engineer in the post which they had demanded.

Source PTI

DVC plugs in leaks to prevent loss of power

Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), the government-run power utility jointly owned by the centre, West Bengal and Jharkhand governments, is all set to introduce prepaid energy card and install prepaid meters in commercial establishments. It would also install tamperproof electronic meters and introduce AB conductor and underground cables on theft-prone areas to prevent pilferage of energy.

Secretary and financial adviser of DVC Umesh Kumar told Financial Chronicle that due to power theft and unauthorised connection in and around DVC colonies, the company was losing nearly Rs 60 crore annually.

Besides, the company was also losing nearly Rs 3 crore every month due to power pilferage by some big consumers, said Kumar spearheading these changes in DVC said.

The power utility has also realised evasion of another Rs 12 crore by way of detection of underbilling. “By use of RMR (Reliability Must Run) facilities and Sema project, comparative analysis of bills have already been done and actual consumption of the consumers has been done,” he said.

As a result of close monitoring of various consumers with the help of Sema project, apparent voltage drop has been identified and transmission loss of approximately Rs 1 crore per month has been detected. Action is being taken for checking this transmission loss.

Damodar Valley Corporation asks for Rs 5000 crore capital infusion

KOLKATA: Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has requested the government for fresh capital infusion to the tune of 5,000 crore. The company says if it does not receive the money, capacity expansion plans to the tune of 5,000 mw would not be realised.

The DVC is not a company under the Company's Act 1956, and cannot approach the capital market for raising money to meet it equity requirements. The proposal is currently lying with the finance ministry.

This power generator and utility company is an entity under the DVC Act of 1948 which received its last tranche of capital from the government way back in1968-69 and it was about 200 crore.


The fund was used to set up the company's generation units then. Its current equity base from surpluses and profits generated over the years has grown to about 5,000 crore as of March 2011.

Confirming the development a senior DVC official said: "We have requested the government for fresh capital infusion and if it doesn't come within the next two months major projects will be stalled. We have a number of projects that will be taken up between June and September this year."

The government's capital in DVC will be required to finance the equity portion of the projects being undertaken.

The proposed projects will require equity capital of 11,000 crore of which about 6,000 crore has been met out of internal reserves. The rest at 5,000 crore is being asked by DVC from the government. According to the DVC Act, equity for power projects is financed in equal proportion by the centre and state governments of West Bengal and Jharkhand.

Source ET

Coal crunch hits Damodar Valley units

KOLKATA: A 1,000-mw power generation capacity, set up at an investment of 5,500 crore by Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), is lying idle due to lack of coal, though the units are ready to run for commercial generation.

DVC had applied for coal linkage to the Coal Ministry in 2007 but is yet to receive a green signal. The company has set up two units each having 500 mw capacity. The first of these was synchronised in September 2010. The second was synchronised in March 2011.

When a plant achieves synchronisation, it is ready to generate power and pump it into the grid.

Confirming the development, a senior DVC official said: "The first unit for the Mejia project was scheduled to start commercial production by March 2010 while the second was scheduled by June 2010. But we are way beyond target due to non-availability of coal. Construction for the projects started during January 2007 and was scheduled to be completed in 42 months."

"We are trying to arrange coal for these units but have not received anything so far. Hence none of the units has started commercial generation," the official said.

The Economic Times

Coal blocks allocated to DVC face cancellation

The Coal Ministry has decided to deallocate 14 coal blocks and one lignite block awarded to public sector companies like NTPC and DVC, besides three private firms, over their failure to develop the same for captive use, an official said.

"The ministry is going to deallocate 15 blocks, including five allotted to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). These firms were allotted 14 coal blocks and one lignite block in 2007, but failed to explore and develop the same despite showcause notices," a senior Coal Ministry official said.

Apart from NTPC, the ministry has decided to cancel the licenses for blocks awarded to Damodar Valley Corporation, Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation, Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd and the Electricity Boards of Bihar and Jharkhand, among others, for non-adherence to norms, the official said.

The private firms to which deallocation notices were issued include VS Lignite and Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan. Earlier, the government had served notices on 81 steel, power and cement firms for not developing the coal blocks within the allocated timeframe.

The firms had given different reasons, including land acquisition problems, for their inability to develop these blocks.

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had said the government was serious over the issue as the same concerned precious resources lying idle. To weed out non-serious players, the government had last year issued notices to the firms and sought their responses as to why coal blocks allocated to them should not be withdrawn, as they had failed to develop them within the allotted timeframe.

The companies which were issued showcause notices include Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, JSW Steel and GMR Energy, among others.