Adani promised to supply power in reduced price: report
Dhaka (PTI): India's Adani Power on Thursday promised to supply electricity to Bangladesh at a reduced price keeping consistent with the generation cost in the country's existing coal-fired plants.
"The Adani will import the coal for its plants at the same price the Bangladeshi coal-run plants do for themselves," the mass-circulation Prothom Alo newspaper reported quoting an Adani official.
It said the Indian company agreed to revise its procurement price for coal to keep the per unit power price almost equal to those of Bangladeshi coal-fired plants like the Rampal and Payra, the two joint-venture installations with India and China.
"A responsible official of Adani group in Bangladesh has confirmed the development to Prothom Alo," the newspaper reported while Bangladesh officials declined to comment immediately.
Bangladesh's state-run Power Development Board (PDB) earlier this month sought to revise to a 2017 power purchase agreement with Adani Power Ltd as the price for the coal-generated electricity appeared too expensive.
A senior PDB official on Thursday, however, briefly said Adani Power sent a five-member delegation for negotiation with Bangladeshi officials as the "high coal price" to be purchased for the Adani plant at India's Jharkhand emerged as the key factor for the dispute.
Media reports earlier said Bangladesh sought the price revision after it received a request from Adani Power in relation to opening LCs in India to import the coal for the 1,600 MW plant in the Godda district of Jharkhand.
"In our view, the coal price they have quoted (USD 400/MT) is excessive - it should be less than USD 250/MT, which is what we are paying for the imported coal at our other thermal power plants," an official said earlier preferring anonymity.
Adani Power requires a demand note from Bangladesh that will be presented to Indian authorities before opening LCs against the coal import as their plant is meant for exporting power to the neighbouring country.
The US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) earlier in a 2018 report called the Adani project to be "too expensive and too risky for Bangladesh".
Bangladesh currently imports 1,160MW of electricity from India while the 2017 agreement it is supposed to buy electricity from Adani Power Ltd for 25 years and start getting electricity from March this year.
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We are together at home: Sharad Pawar on Ajit Pawar
Mumbai (PTI): Former Union minister Sharad Pawar on Monday said that he and nephew Ajit Pawar are together as a family, but made it clear that the latter was heading a different political party.
“Gharat tari ekatrach ahet (we are together at home least),” the veteran politician said at a press conference at Chiplun in coastal Konkan region.
He was responding to a query about the demand from “various quarters in the state” that the uncle-nephew duo should come together once again.
In July last year, Ajit Pawar broke away from his uncle to join the Eknath Shinde-led government in the state as deputy chief minister. Of late, there has been speculation over his continuation in the ruling alliance.
Asked about Ajit Pawar’s recent remarks the decision to make his wife Sunetra Pawar contest the Lok Sabha polls against Supriya Sule in Baramati was a mistake, the veteran politician said, “He is in a different party. Why should we comment on decisions taken by another party?”
Asked if the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of NCP (SP), Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) had decided its chef ministerial face, Pawar said, “I don’t think that it is an urgent issue at the moment”.
When elections were held after the Emergency, Morarji Desai’s name as PM candidate was not disclosed before polling, he added.
“Our (MVA) attempt is to give a progressive alternative in Maharashtra with help of other parties like Samajwadi Party and Peasants and Workers Party,” he said.
“Our observation is that the people of Maharashtra have made up their mind to give us (MVA) a chance in the ensuing elections,” he said.
Asked about Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu’s claim that sub-standard ghee with 'animal fat' was used to make prasad laddoos at Tirupati temple during Jaganmohan Reddy's tenure as CM, Pawar said, “If anything was mixed, it is very wrong and action should be taken against those involved”.
