The power plant of litigation embroiled Dabhol Power Corporation is likely to remain idle for some more time as the Supreme Court's initiative to restart it met a roadblock on Wednesday with key shareholders of DPC -- subsidiaries of GE and Bechtel -- refusing to submit to the court's jurisdiction.
Much to the annoyance of a bench comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice B N Agrawal, the two companies submitted before the court that they would give their suggestions on restarting of the power plant and fixing of interim tariff through DPC itself and would not submit to the jurisdiction of the court individually.
The bench refused to accept their plea and adjourned the matter for further hearing in the second week of January on the reopening of the courts after winter vacation.
Exactly a month back, the court had sought responses of GE subsidiary Capital India Power Mauritius and Bechtel subsidiary Energy Enterprise to let the court know about their response to the plant going back to the business of generating power.
The plant has been lying idle for last two years after the controversial pulling out of the United States power major Enron from the project.
The subsidiaries of GE and Bechtel, each holding 10 per cent of the shares in the DPC, are refusing to participate in the process of restarting of the plant saying they should be allowed to recover their investment in the plant.
Bechtel Enterprises and GE have filed an arbitration action against the Government of India, seeking about $600 million each as against their investment of $120 million each in DPC.
Observing that "prima facie we are also of the opinion that it is in everybody's interest that the plant starts functioning again," the court had said that it would consider the issue of fixing the interim tariff at which Maharashtra State Electricity Board should buy power from DPC.
These proceedings took place on the petition filed by DPC objecting to the decision of MSEB to approach Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Authority on fixation of interim tariff saying the apex court had passed a consent order that none of the parties would approach either MERC or the tribunal on their dispute over the power purchase agreement.
However, financial institutions led by IDBI contended that they were interested in getting the plant back on its feet as they wanted to recover their investment which was nearly Rs 6,500 crore (Rs 65 billion) forming over 70 per cent of the total cost of the project.
Other parties present before the court, including DPC shareholder Enron and financial institution IDBI, have already given their consent for restarting of the power generation by the plant.
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