21 MW power project in Baramura uncertain

Agartala, Aug 10 (UNI) Tripura has criticised the Union Finance Ministry's 'one-sided' decision of creating a new law for the 21 MW thermal power project at Baramura in west district.

The new law says that the Centre-State ratio for financing the project will be 70:30, out of which 30 per cent will be loan. But according to the existing law, the ratio is 90:10 of which ten per cent is loan which is applicable for the entire North-East. This was informed by state Power Minister Manik Dey last night.

Speaking to the media he said the Centre was proceeding towards cancelling the proposed project which was cleared by the North Eastern Council (NEC) in 2003.

The NEC has the authority to clear a project whose estimated cost is up to Rs 50 crores. The NEC had to forward the Baramura project to the finance ministry as the estimated cost was Rs 96 crore.

The Centre's decision has already been communicated by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in a letter to the state power minister recently.

''I have already sent many letters to the Union Power Minister as well as the finance minister regarding the implementation of this project which is important to other N E states.

''But the state's request for 90:10 ratio has been turned down by the minister pushing the proposed project for an uncertain future,'' said Mr Dey.

From the beginning of approval for the project, the union government had been raising certain issues to cancel the project, the state power minister alleged.

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