Group of Ministers to consider gas allocation to six Indian power plants

New Delhi, Nov 1 (ANI): An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet on November 10 to decide on allocating natural gas from fields like Reliance Industries' KG-D6 to six upcoming power plants.

The Ministers Group was previously scheduled to meet on November 2, but the meeting will now be held on November 10.

The panel, which had last met on July 28, is likely to decide on allocating gas to six power plants that have been certified by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) of being commissioned by in the XIth Five-Year Plan ending March 2012.

It has been reported that during the meeting, the EGoM will consider allocating 4.67 Million Metric Standard Cubic Meter Per Day (MMSCMD) to 1,500 MW Bawana project in New Delhi, 3.08 MMSCMD to Lanco's 770 MW Kondapalli expansion project in Andhra Pradesh, 3.07 MMSCMD for GMR's 768 MW Vemagiri expansion project in Andhra Pradesh, 2.62 MMSCMD to 702 MW Pipavav project in Gujarat, 1.31 MMSCMD to 351 MW Hazira unit of Gujarat State Electricity Corp and 0.84 MMSCMD for 225 MW Kashipur project in Uttarakhand.

A government official said seven other projects including Anil Ambani Group's 2,400 MW Samalkot expansion project in Andhra Pradesh may not be considered for allocation of gas just yet.

"Currently, only the plants that have CEA certificate of completion will be considered. There are seven other plants which say they will be commissioned by 2012 but those will be considered after CEA certifies their claims," he said.

The seven plants awaiting CEA certification would in all need 20.96 Million Metric Standard Cubic Meter Per Day (MMSCMD) of gas. (ANI)