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Enron confident about Dabhol power project

Enron Corp, responding to a threat by the Congress party to halt the huge Dabhol power project, says it is confident it could work with any political party to implement the project.

The US energy company was responding to a statement in which the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee said it would stop work on the second phase of the project if it won the state assembly election.

A spokeswoman at Enron's headquarters in Houston appeared yesterday to downplay the statement, saying the Dabhol project had won broad support from all major political parties in India.

"Enron has established positive relationships in the country and is confident that we can work with any political party in power," company spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly told Reuters.

The MPCC, in its statement, said the Dabhol Power Company, in which Enron holds a 50 per cent stake, was charging too much for electricity generated under the first phase of the project and that it would therefore renegotiate those prices.

The project to set up the world's largest private power plant at Dabhol, some 400 km south of Bombay, has been dogged by controversy since its inception in 1992.

Commercial production under the 740 megawatt phase one of the project, which cost $ 1.078 billion, began in late May. The second phase is a 1,624 megawatt plant, costing $ 1.87 billion and is scheduled for commissioning in 2001.

UNI

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