In a meeting chaired by state chief secretary Atul Kumar Gupta yesterday, the ETF recommended invitation of fresh bids for setting up the power plants at Bara and Karchhna in the Allahabad district. However, this has to be ratified by the state Cabinet first to take effect. This would be the third time that the state government would invite bids for the two power plants, which have failed to take off in spite of much fanfare with which they were initially announced.
In the revised financial bids, Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Power had emerged as the lowest tariff bidder last month vis--vis other power majors such as Lanco Infratech and National Thermal Power Corporation. Official sources said the government might go for re-bidding to bring down the quoted tariff, which is observed to be on the higher side. The ETF will meet on July 19 to take a final view.
The Centre has put the proposed Rs 3,500-crore global airport hub at Noida in Uttar Pradesh into cold storage and the ambitious project would not be able to keep its date with the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
The Uttar Pradesh government today ordered first information reports to be lodged against all the 16 sugar mills that Bajaj Hindusthan owns in the state for allegedly failing to honour farmers' payment commitments for the crushing season 2007-08. Shishir Bajaj-controlled Bajaj Hindusthan is the country's largest sugar producer.
Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited, which closed down fuel pumps in UP last month due to mounting losses, has denied plans of converting the defunct outlets into malls. The company was forced to shut the outlets as the petrol and diesel sold there were costlier by nearly Rs 10 and Rs 6, respectively, vis-a-vis public sector retailers.
Scooters India Limited (SIL), a public sector automotive company, is mulling foray into the electric two-wheeler segment and is presently evaluating the expressions of interest (EoIs) by some domestic companies for a possible collaboration. The Lucknow-based company aims to augment its product range from passenger three-wheelers to include green two-wheelers.
Normalcy returned to the Sahara premises in Lucknow. The residuary NBFC saw the Supreme Court's direction to Sahara India Financial Corporation to approach the designated RBI authority in a positive light.
The Uttar Pradesh government is carrying out an annual sugarcane survey in the state to ascertain the requirement of the state sugar mills and total area cultivated under the cash crop. Besides, the comprehensive survey seeks to identify and weed out sugarcane mafia from the whole system.