Its first impact on ground was chief minister Omar Abdullah filing a defamation suit against PDP leaders Nizamuddin Bhat and spokesman Naem Akhter for accusing him of receiving kickbacks in the 690-MW Ratle power project, state’s first BOOT (built, operate, own and transfer) deal.

Ratle is a Chenab basin run of the river project located 25 km downstream of Kishtwar near Drubshala hamlet. It was tendered on basis of upfront premium, free power, tariff for 55% of generations by the project to be procured by the state and terminal price to be paid at the time of transfer of the project.

Of the five bidders Hyderabad based GVK Development Projects Pvt Ltd bagged the deal with Tata Power and L&T ending as second and third bidders. Reliance and Birla Power had also entered bids for the project. GVK bagged it by offering five lakh rupees per MW as upfront premium, 16 per cent as free power including one per cent for local area development fund, levelised tariff of Rs 1.44 per unit and Rs 380 crore as terminal price to be paid to the developer at the end of 35 years for transferring the project back to the state. The project is expected to cost Rs 5500 crore.

Officials associated with the exercise said tariff based bidding was adopted for the first time in India and has already become a benchmark. Decision of executing the project through BOOT mode had been taken by Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2008. The MoU was signed recently.

“They are on track and are in pre-construction mode,” a senior power ministry official said, “They are busy in survey and have applied for environmental permissions some of which they have got instantly.” The company has engaged some staff as well.

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