Russian firm raises fresh demand of $248m from NTPC.

The government finds itself in a bind as Russian engineering, procurement and construction company TPE (Technopromexport) continues to give state-run generation utility NTPC a runaround, raising the prospect of further delaying the 1,980 MW Barh power project in Bihar.

After overshooting the completion schedule by more than three years and receiving $190 million in 2010, TPE has now raised a demand for an additional $248 million for completing the remaining work.

TPE has raised the demand even after Sberbank Rossii, Russia's biggest bank, extended a $328 million line of credit to help the government-run engineering firm complete its contract for supplying boilers for the Barh project.

But NTPC has refused to entertain the demand since the amount demanded by TPE is 'beyond' the terms of the contract. Peeved with the demand, NTPC has also drawn the government's attention towards TPE constantly shifting commissioning dates.

Government sources said TPE kept shifting the dates even during a meeting its director-general S A Topor-Gilka had in Delhi with NTPC executives in September. 'In September, TPE gave November 2016, May 2016 and November 2017 as commissioning dates for Units 1, 2 and 3 respectively. In October, they changed the dates to December 2015, June 2016 and January 2017,' an official said.


TOI