APTransco seeks exit proposal from Reliance Power on KUMPP project

The AP Power Transmission Corporation (APTransco) has asked Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power to submit a "clear exit proposal" for termination of the 4,000-megawatts (MW) Krishnapatnam Ultra Mega Power Project (KUMPP) in the Nellore district.

Reliance Power submitted a proposal to the Andhra Pradesh government last month seeking to exit KUMPP as it could not take up the project originally sanctioned way back in 2007.

Reliance Power is currently locked in a legal dispute with the Andhra government over the forfeiture of Rs 300 crore that the former submitted as bank guarantee for the project.

KUMPP did not move much in the last nine years as Reliance delayed the project citing non-availability of coal and escalation of costs though the state government allotted 2,400 acres in Krishnapatnam.

Power produced from the plant was supposed to be sold in AP, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana.

Reliance Power CEO N Venugopala Rao wrote a letter last month asking the state government to take over KUMPP on the lines of Tilaiya UMPP in Jharkhand.

The APTransco held a meeting in Hyderabad last week involving all stakeholders of the project to consider the Reliance Power proposal.

"We have asked Reliance to submit a clear exit proposal so that we can consider its request. The cases of Tilaiya and Krishnapatnam are different and can't be linked," AP Transco Chairman and Managing Director (in-charge) K Vijayanand told reporters on Saturday. He pointed out that KUMPP involved five states.