Power Minister’s intervention sought in Raghunathpura thermal fraud
Vinod Kumar Gupta, 15-Nov-2011 11:36:55 AM . Font Size: Keywords: Raghunathpura thermal DVC Reliance infra | Advertisement Power Minister’s intervention sought in Raghunathpura thermal fraud
Tuesday November 15, 2011
New Delhi
All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has sought the intervention of Sushil Kumar Shinde Union Power Minister as Reliance infra the EPC contractor for Raghunathpur thermal is holding the project to ransom for last one year after committing an alleged fraud in the construction of cooling tower of unit 1.
It may be mentioned that intervention at level of Secretary Power and Joint Secretary / Thermal cum Chief Vigilance Officer MOP has not yielded results. The power Ministry should now rein in the EPC contractor who is holding the project to ransom, AIPEF has written in a letter to Union Power Minister.
According to sources DVC has constituted a contingency plan by which the cooling tower of Unit-II would be used to run Raghunathpur Unit-I. In that case, which agency is going to bear the extra expenditure of diverting the water of Unit-I to cooling tower of Unit-II? In case such stop-gap arrangement is used, then for Unit-II, there will be no cooling tower and this unit would get stranded.”
After committing the fraud last year, the corrective action is not being taken by the EPC contractor, which is extremely serious as it would delay the commissioning of 600 MW units. Moreover the tender file of EPC contract went missing after the enquiry in to fraud in construction of cooling tower of unit 1 at Raghunathpur, due to organised theft of steel from the project started. DVC Committee report of July 20 has quantified in percentage terms the extent of the fraud committed by contractor. The steel was sold in black in open market and was shown as consumed in construction of cooling tower. The involvement of DVC official at site also needs to be examined.
The fraud issue is being examined by an expert committee comprising representatives of Damodar Valley Corporation, Central electricity Authority, BHEL and consultants. The construction work of the cooling tower has been put on hold, AIPEF urged the power minister that. Secretary (Power) is directed to resolve the issue at the earliest.
The letter maintains that since the cooling tower is tainted with fraud and corruption the entire shell must be demolished and reconstructed at the risk and cost of the EPC contractor. This is an eminently fit case for minister for Power to intervene and to call in the CVC as well as CBI to take over the investigation into fraud.
There is widespread perception in DVC that EPC contractor has not bothered or implemented the decision of meetings headed by ministry officials which means that there is some higher authority that is patronising and supporting corruption and fraud