India’s Solar Mission could have some dark days ahead as the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Wednesday accused Lanco Infratech alone cornering around 40% projects awarded under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) which allegedly is in contravention of the norms perscribed. The company, however, denied charges and said CSE “wrongly perceived” the information.
Presenting their investigation in a press conference, CSE alleged that Lanco flouted guidelines issued by the Union ministry of new and renewable energy and floated front companies to grab nine projects involving 235MW, which is about 40% of the 620 MW worth of projects auctioned by the government in the first batch of the first phase of the JNNSM.
CSE said in 2010 MNRE had ruled that the first batch of the projects would be equitably distributed among companies. During the auctions, each company was allowed to bid for and win one 100 MW solar thermal and one 5 MW solar photovoltaic (Solar PV) project.
Stating that Lanco initiated work on these nine projects, CSE said, “In the winning bids for solar thermal projects, Lanco’s name appears only in the case of Diwakar Solar Projects, which bagged a 100 MW solar thermal contract.”
CSE’s investiogation revealed that seven more companies had direct links with Lanco and even their own annual report shows that they are under Lanco’s full control.
Lanco group, however, in a statement strongly refuted the allegations and objected to CSE’s study.
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