It's pertinent to mention that intervention at the level of Secretary Power and Joint Secretary / Thermal cum Chief Vigilance Officer MOP has not yielded results. The power Ministry should now rein in the EPC contractor who is holding the project to ransom, AIPEF has written in a letter to Union Power Minister.

According to sources DVC has constituted a contingency plan by which the cooling tower of Unit-II would be used to run Raghunathpur Unit-I. In that case, which agency is going to bear the extra expenditure of diverting the water of Unit-I to cooling tower of Unit-II? In case such stop-gap arrangement is used, then for Unit-II, there will be no cooling tower and this unit is feared to get stranded.”

After committing the alleged fraud last year, corrective action is not being taken by the EPC contractor, which is of considerable importance as it would delay the commissioning of 600 MW units. Moreover, the tender file of EPC contract went missing after the enquiry into fraud in construction of cooling tower of unit 1 at Raghunathpur, due to organised theft of steel from the project. DVC Committee report of July 20 has quantified in percentage terms the extent of the alleged fraud committed by the contractor. The steel was sold in black/ open market and was shown as used in construction of cooling tower. The involvement of DVC official at site also needs to be examined.

The alleged fraud issue is being examined by an expert committee comprising representatives of Damodar Valley Corporation, Central electricity Authority, BHEL and consultants. The construction work of the cooling tower has been put on hold, AIPEF urged the Power Minister that the Secretary (Power) be directed to resolve the issue at the earliest.

The letter maintains that since the cooling tower is tainted with fraud and corruption, the entire shell must be demolished and reconstructed at the risk and cost of the EPC contractor. This is an eminently fit case for minister for Power to intervene and to call in the CVC as well as CBI to take over the investigation into fraud.

There is widespread perception in DVC that EPC contractor has not bothered or implemented the decision of meetings headed by ministry officials, which impresses that there is some higher authority that is patronising and supporting corruption and fraud.