Addressing a press conference at the power plant on Wednesday, Srivastava said that the expansion plan will go ahead even as ESSAR Power is being sold to Marathon, a US-based company, which has undergone an agreement to buy 100 per cent equity of ESSAR Power for which the company is awaiting government's clearance.

According to Srivastava, the State government has ``agreed'' to the expansion of the plant (phase II). SAIL and ESSAR have jointly proposed to develop the Hazira port as an LNG terminal that will be a fuel source. But if the project is delayed, ESSAR Power will have to obtain gas from another source.

Srivastava said ESSAR Power, country's first independent power plant, had been consistently operating at high levels of plant availability. The plant availability and plant load factor both have been improving, according to Srivastava.

In its drive to reduce tariff, ESSAR Power, having one of the lowest capital cost per MW in the country, is now contemplating to increase the plant's capacity from 515 MW to 575 MW. This additional increase of 60 MW is expected to cost around Rs 50 crores. On its completion, the unit cost of tariff is expected to come down further. The capacity increase would be achieved by producing steam from the waste heat generated at ESSAR's -- two million tonne -- steel plant and using the same in the gas turbine.