The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has highlighted several anomalies in the execution of projects by Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPTCL) during 2007-12.
It has said that the company failed to draw power from the newly commissioned generating stations for long periods, as evacuation facilities were not put in place.
The CAG report on Public Sector Undertakings for the year ended March 31, 2012, tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, said the actual expenditure of KPTCL had increased to Rs. 2,093 crore in 2007-08 from Rs. 479 crore in 2005-06. However, the actual outlay decreased to Rs. 945 crore in 2011-12.
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Delay in commissioning
The CAG observed that there were delays at different stages during construction of substations.
“Many works were not commissioned even after completion. Works idled for long periods after commissioning because of non-completion of sources lines, redundancy of lines and abandoning the lines,” it said. The delay resulted in loss of energy worth Rs. 353.29 crore and in incurring of unnecessary interest charges of Rs. 11.66 crore on idle capital deployed (in test checked projects).
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There were 321 ongoing projects as the end of March 2012.
In 43 test checked cases, 14 projects had been delayed after spending Rs. 734.89 crore. It said commissioning 357 transformers (Rs. 641.52 crore) of the 492 transformers were delayed for periods ranging from three to 49 months.
Six of the 16 generating stations did not have black-start facilities while six major 220 kV substations DG sets were not provided/not in working condition. A total of 709 transformers (33.51 per cent) of the 2,116 transformers commissioned were overloaded (beyond 90 per cent).
Capital borrowings
During the last five years, KPTCL mobilised Rs. 7,855.85 crore by way of capital and borrowings and utilised only Rs. 6,972.75 crore on capital expenditure. The report noted that internal generation of funds were not sufficient to repay the borrowings fully and return on capital decreased from 8.85 per cent in 2007-08 to 6.24 per cent in 2011-12.