Congress MP seeks CBI probe in corrupt contracts in NLC’s Ghatampur power project

Congress MP MK Vishnu Prasad has urged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a probe on the corruption in awarding contracts in Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC).

In a detailed complaint, a Congress MP alleged that tenders illegally awarded to the PSU's thermal power project in Ghatampur in Uttar Pradesh have caused huge loss to the public exchequer to the tune of more than Rs 1500 crore due to the corrupt practices of top officials in connivance with private contractors.

"Criminal Complaint filed under section 30 of BNSS, 2023, against Prasanna Kumar Mottupalli (CMD), Chairman cum Managing Director, NLCIL (Neyveli Lignite Corporation India Limited) and other

officials namely M Venkatachalam (Director/ Power), Samir Swaroop (Director/HR), Prasanna Kumar Acharya (Director/ Finance), Suresh Chandra Suman (Director/ Mines and P&P i/c)), Appakannu Govindarajan (CVO/NLCIL), K Matlii (ED/NTTPP), along with private individuals, contractors and legal entities represented by the respective private individuals conspired to do an illegal act to commit criminal misconduct, breach of trust, cheating, fabrication of documents and false implication of accounts and thereby caused wrongful loss to the NLC, owned by Government of India comes under the Ministry of Coal and Mines and thereby correspondingly caused wrongful gain to the private individuals, contractors and legal entities represented by the respective private individuals through the tune of Rs 1,567 crores (Rs 1357 crore + Rs 210 crore)," said Vishnu Prasad in a complaint to CBI Director.

"NUPPL — (3X660MW), Ghatampur, Uttar Pradesh — A huge amount given to M/s BGRE contractor against the contract without any Bank Guarantee and corruption by NLCIL officials. In the NUPPL Project, the Original Contract of Balance of plant (BOP) work awarded value – Rs 2,788 crore. Period of work 50 months from Letter of Award (LOA) date, 21.11.2016 (21.11.26 to 20.01.21).

During the execution of work from 2019, due to a financial crunch, BGRE became almost bankrupt, and BGRE did not execute the BOP work as per schedule.

But NLCIL took an inordinate delay in solving this issue. After the way forward mechanism with the approval of NLCIL Board (in favour of BGRE), work started from May 2022 only," said the MP from Cuddalore Lok Sabha Constituency, where the PSU Neyveli Lignite Corporation is headquartered.

Congress MP alleged that the Gatampur thermal power project, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is delayed for six years, and top officials of the PSU have illegally increased the cost of the project to more than Rs 1000 crores.

NUPPL Unit 1 COD (12.12.2024) was done in 96 months against the contractual schedule of 50 months. GA3 Package contract value got raised/revised from the original value of Rs 2788 crore to Rs 3772 crore (Rev2), now Rev-3 is due. The point is that to complete the balance work, the L2 bidder M//s L&T asked additional Rs 400 crore only, which is not only money but also a delay.

In the Way forward mechanism, NLC amended the contract of BGRE and, in the name of standard operating procedure, started giving contracts to inexperienced and financially weak parties through BGRE," said Vishnu Prasad, detailing the corrupt practices in Neyveli Lignite Corporation.

A Congress MP said that standard operating procedures in awarding tenders and contracts are violated and illegally awarded to private companies facing insolvency by the top management of the PSU. He accused top management of the PSU is involved in huge corruption and sought the CBI to register a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act. "Since the tender document was given only to 4-5 bidders of choice of BGR, all 4-5 parties quoted rates in the guidance of BGR. Only one party, Vishnu Saran, got 95% of the civil work tenders. Due to this procedure, subcontractors worked as per their wish, as there was no penalty clause project got delayed by more than 2 years (other delays of 4 years are separate).

"Over and above this, CMD paid advance money to BGR without any guarantee (saying corporate guarantee from BGRE, which is already in financial crunch). On instruction of CMD, NLC started paying salaries of BGR staff – Rs 2 crore per month for the last 2 years. BGR is the employer, and NLC is paying the salary through a third party and will stop paying after completion of the project. Why these people will work and what qualifications they have that the NLC staff do not have. Total amount paid to BGRE is Rs 4,234 crore, which includes payments to their subcontractors and staff salaries. Recently, a total amount of Rs 1,357 crore is paid as an advance to BGRE for which there is no security or collateral with NLC. Due to this inordinate delay by BGRE, the cost of electricity (Tariff) from the NUPPL plant has increased from Rs 4.52 per unit to Rs 7.2 per unit, due to corruption by CMD and Director/Power," said Congress MP Vishnu Prasad, seeking a CBI probe.