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IDBI to pump in $500 mn to restart DPC

Financial institutions led by Industrial Development Bank of India will fund the repair, completion and startup costs of up to $500 million of the troubled Dabhol Power Company's 2,184 mw project.

"Our first priority is to restart the phase one of the DPC's plant as Indian investors' money is blocked in this project. While National Thermal Power Corporation has agreed to manage the plant on a fee, IDBI will fund the completion of the entire project", Union Power Minister Anant Geete told reporters in Mumbai on Thursday.

Though the minister did not specify the amount, a senior IDBI official when contacted said the lead FI had earmarked approximately $500 million for the completion of the now idle power project.

At the press conference, Geete said the government has decided to restart DPC's 740 mw phase one, adding "even as the country was reeling under severe power shortage, the power project was lying idle since over 15 months".

He said due to the lack of investments in the generation sector setting up of new projects was neither feasible nor affordable.

"It is our money and if DPC is not restarted soon, the exposure which runs into crores of rupees will dissolve in the dust. We cannot afford to let this happen", Geete said.

The minister said during his interaction with US Energy Secretary Abraham Spencer last week in Washington, he had assured the American government that India will restart the plant.

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