Joshi today announced this decision after the State Cabinet approved the same in its routine weekly meeting at Mantralaya. DLI, owned by an NRI originally from Maharashtra, V Rajadhyaksha, will be involved in setting up the 36 MW plant to be completed in 15 months.

Talking to reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting, Joshi said the power station on completion would be given to the company on a 30-year lease. The power produce would be purchased by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) at an initial rate of Rs 2.13 and subsequently at Rs 2.38 per unit.

DLI would pay Rs 18 lakh per year to the Irrigation Department of the state government as royalty to use water for generating power.

The said project was a result of the Advantage Maharashtra exhibition held recently to attract NRIs to invest in key sectors ofdevelopment in Maharashtra.

PATALGANGA PROJECT

: The State Cabinet, in another decision, conferred the rights on the MSEB to alter the agreement between the State government and Reliance Industries Limited on the Rs 463.13-cr Patalganga project.

The government and representatives of the company had signed an agreement recently according to which the MSEB was to buy about 410 MW power generated at the proposed plant. The agreement had provided that the levelised capacity charge would be Rs 1.55 per unit. But, when the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) imposed certain conditions before sanctioning the project to reduce project costs by Rs 32.82 crore and to increase the generation capacity to 447 MW from the projected 410 MW, it resulted in reducing the levelised capacity charge to Rs 1.41 per unit.

The Cabinet today accepted the request from RI on raising the rate and empowered the MSEB to amend the earlier agreement. The new levelised capacity charge will be Rs 1.48 per unit instead of theearlier of Rs 1.55 per unit.