Ranchi, Sept. 6: The state today asked Mumbai-based Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Ltd (Arcil), the custodian of the Chandwa-based thermal power plant in Latehar that Abhijeet Group abandoned, to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in a month and fast-track its revival.
Chief minister Raghubar Das chaired this crucial meeting with Arcil CEO and MD Vinayak Bahuguna, and other senior officials of the company and the state government, at Project Building this afternoon.
The Raghubar Das government asked Arcil to form an SPV, which may, according to industry experts, have a corporate entity among its partners that would ultimately take over the power plant to run it.
Then, Arcil will send a fresh proposal within a month containing details of SPV partners to the state government and departments concerned, state additional chief secretary R.K. Shrivastava, who heads the energy department, and was privy to today's meeting, told this correspondent.
Outside, Arcil CEO and MD Bahuguna sounded upbeat. "We got a positive response on all fronts," he said.
Arcil, as the present custodian of the plant, demanded the state re-validate the order to deploy a Jharkhand Industrial Security Force unit at the Chandwa site and allot Chittarpur coal block, de-allocated from Abhijeet Group in 2014, to Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation, which can enter into a long-term fuel supply pact with the Arcil-designated entity that would finally run it.
A source privy to today's meeting said Arcil had set a target of next 18-24 months to get a company to start the first phase of production from the Chandwa unit, whose capacity would be 270MW. There is possibility of direct employment for 2,500 people in the plant for which preference will be given to Chandwa land-losers.
Chief secretary Rajbala Verma, forest, environment and climate change department secretary Sukhdev Singh, commercial taxes secretary K.K. Khandelwal, CM's principal secretary Sanjay Kumar, Jharkhand Bijli Vitaran Nigam MD Rahul Kumar Purwar, among others, attended the meeting.
Power meet
The chief minister on Tuesday chaired a meeting of Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam to beef up power distribution and regularise pay to power supply firms DVC, NTPC and others.
