'Dabhol project will come up next year'

The Ratnagiri Gas and Power Project, earlier known as the Dabhol project, will be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coming year, chairman of the Empowered Group of Ministers said.

A decision was taken on Monday in a meeting of Empowered Group of Ministers, chaired by Union Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The meeting held at the project site to review the ongoing construction work at Dabhol power project, which will be dedicated to the nation in March or April 2008, was attended by Union Ministers Sharad Pawar and Sushil Kumar Shinde, Maharashtra Chief Minster Vilasrao Deshmukh, and State Minsters Dlip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif and Sunil Tatkere.

Other decisions taken in the meeting include increasing the generation capacity of Dabhol to 5000 MW by 2015, commissioning the project fully by the end of the current financial year and finding long term solution to the fuel problem.

The committee of central ministers and state ministers visited Dabhol power project to take review of existing project and to think about its expansion to enhance the power generation from 2150 MW to 5000 MW.