`Enron has asked us to be lead arrangers for financing this project and we are considering the proposal,'' head of South Asia, International Finance Development of Sumitomo Bank, Bharat Kaushal said. Sumitomo, which will have to raise finances to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars for the project, has, however, sought certain clarifications from Enron regarding the escrow account for Dabhol phase-II, he said.

``We plan to raise the money in the same way we did for the phase-I,'' Kaushal said. The Japanese bank was lead arranger for the 740 MW, phase-I power project of Enron, for which the bank arranged about $ 660 million dollars, Kaushal said.

Sumitomo was lead manager for a consortium of banks which included Bank of America, ABN Amro and ING Barings which mobilised about 150 million dollars each.``The bank would like to have the same consortium of bankers to arrange funds for Dabhol phase-II so that we can raise the money easily'', Kaushal said.

Enron Power Corporation has also approached State Bank , Canara Bank, IFCI, Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) for part financing the 1.8 billion dollar phase-II project, company sources said. Admitting that U S Exim Bank did not commit $ 500 million loan for phase-II of the project in wake of U S sanctions on India, the sources said Enron was now looking at the overseas market for about 70 per cent of finances.

The sources said multinationals ABB and General Electric were in the race for the (EPC) contract of the project. About six multinationals including, Siemens, GEC Alsthom, Mitsubishi, and Westinghouse, had earlier bid for the project, besides ABB and General Electric. Enron proposes to import about five million tonnes of the liquefied petroleum product from Qatar Gas and Petroleum Corporation for Dabhol-II.