RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC), has got approvals from a government panel for coal linkages from Coal India to help commission its idle unit in Maharashtra, Chairman of the Group Sanjiv Goenka said.
“The Standing Linkage Committee for coal has now extended necessary approvals and the linkages are set to come from Coal India” Mr.Goenka said. The unit located in Chandrapur near Nagpur, in Maharashtra, which was acquired from Manikchand Group in June 2010, can be commissioned as soon as the coal linkages are finalised, he said. The 600 MW plant has been lying idle for an year now.
The group commissioned the Chandrapur project at a cost of Rs.3,800 crore in August 2014 and problems arose over a technical issue regarding a name-change and its coal linkage from Coal India South Eastern Coalfields got cancelled, although long-term power purchase agreements were in place.
The setback was a major one for CESC although it got down to resolving the issue even as the plant idled. The losses of the group company Dhariwal Infrastructure were estimated at Rs.457 crore in 2014-15.
