Enron's chairman votes for DPC
New Delhi: Enron chairman Kenneth Lay is said to have saved the Dabhol power project from closure, according to reports, as he exercised his veto against the closure at the Enron board meeting in Houston recently.

This means that the company is not yet pulling out of the project, although the board had voted in favour of proceeding with the termination of the 2.9 billion dollar power project, and lenders have expressed unwillingness to continue disbursements in the face of unmet payment and contractual obligations. Engineering procurement and construction contractors GE and equipment suppliers Bechtel too are hesitant to go ahead with the work.

For Enron, this is yet another project that has gone awry, with similar experience in Pakistan. Its foray into oil and gas in India too is not faring too well.
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DPC lenders mount pressure to ensure payment
Mumbai / New Delhi: Pressure is mounting on the Central government, with both Indian and global lenders seeking intervention in the Dabhol power project standoff. IDBI has written to the ministry of Finance on behalf of the Indian lenders, saying that their combined investment of Rs 5,154 crores, which has no counter guarantee cover, unlike the foreign lenders, is in jeopardy if Enron terminates the power purchase agreement and pulls out of the project.

The Indian financial institution want the phase II of the project, which is 90 per cent complete, to be allowed to be completed, and an alternative mode for dist5ribution of power be explored in view of the Maharashtra Electricity Board's inability to pay, or absorb the power from phase II.

Offshore lenders such as Japanese Exim/Miti, OPIC, BA Asia, OND (Belgium), on the other hand, who had agreed to a three week time for resolving the issue are now getting impatient that ten of the 21 days have passed by with no solution in sight.

In a strong message to the Indian government, they have sought that it discharge its counter-guarantor obligations by ensuring that payments are made for the period up to March 2001. They have also sought the reactivation of the escrow arrangements by MSEB.
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