Kochi: The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) is understood to have submitted a proposal to the state government to take up the Rs 6,000 crore petcock-based power project in Kochi even as the government-promoted private company Inkel on Friday entering the fray claiming right on it.
The industries department is understood to have received the proposal from KSIDC, the industrial promotion arm of the state government, in the first week of December in which it indicated its interest in implementing the project.
The Cabinet had last week decided to entrust KSIDC with purchasing 150 acres from FACT to set up the project which seeks to produce 500-600 MW power from petcock, the byproduct BPCL Kochi Refinery will make available once it completed its Integrated Refinery Expansion Programme in February 2016. Kerala State Electricity Board Limited (KSEBL) will also be part of the project as an assured purchaser of the power produced in the plant.
In its proposal, KSIDC is understood to have requested to the government to nominate it as the nodal agency for the project so that it can showcase it to prospective investors as well as power producing companies.
Meanwhile Inkel, the private company formed with the participation of non-resident Keralites investors, has jumped on to the fray saying that it will implement the project on the land the KSIDC will purchase from FACT.
Though he government has not made clear Inkel’s role in the project, the company in a release on Friday claimed that the “power project proposes to employ the most environment-friendly technology currently available in the world, with minimal requirement of land.”
While Inkel claims that the government had entrusted it with preparing a project report, government sources claim that the government has specified no role for the private company.
“The government has given no mandate to Inkel to promote the project nor to bring in investment,” said the sources. “Its share in the project will be limited to the investment it makes in it.”
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