Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s latest offensive against Reliance Industries for ‘creating’ a gas crisis in the market aptly fits on the gas-based Bawana power plant in Delhi. A key Commonwealth Games project, the Rs 4,500 crore power plant is still craving to become fully functional for want of gas supply. Against its total capacity of 1500 MW, the Bawana power plant had till recently been producing only 230 MW electricity. However, its power generation came to an abrupt halt three months ago due to acute gas shortage.
On Tuesday, Kejriwal alleged that Reliance Industries did not produce adequate gas from the Eastern offshore Krishna-Godavari basin block so as to put pressure on the Government to hike the price. The allegation comes in a backdrop of the massive Bawana plant in the Capital being non-operational due to shortage of gas, most of which ought to come from the KG basin. “The plant is gets 1.564 mmscmd (million metric standard cubic metres per day) from State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). Reliance India limited (RIl) had promised to supply 0.836 mmscmd of gas from the KG basin to the Bawana project. But it has refused to do so citing non-availability of gas,” said a senior official in the power department.
While production is currently nil in the Bawana gas based plant, its maintenance is proving to be a Herculean task for the Government. Sources said the Government has to give nearly Rs 14 crore to GAIl for maintenance of the gas pipelines installed in the plant. Several power experts believe Kejriwal’s allegation on Reliance creating an ‘artificial scarcity’ of gas in the market might actually hold true. “Non-availability of gas might not be the actual reason.