New Delhi:
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has rapped National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the country's largest power producer for excessive planning and delays in commissioning projects.
"The capacity addition programme (was) suffered due to lack of scientific approach to planning, inordinate delays from conceptualisation to investment approval," the CAG report said.
In its report the CAG said that NTPC awarded civil works to contractors with track record of delays and one contractor was awarded 17 out of 19 projects without his capacity assessment on carrying out projects.
The report also says all ongoing NTPC projects are likely to be delayed by at least 44 months.
It adds that the delay has resulted in opportunity loss of Rs 16,000 crore and may incur further opportunity loss of Rs 22,000 crore.
These delays were mainly due to contractual disputes and problems, the CAG report said, while recommending that, "NTPC should shorten the planning process and fix benchmarks for all pre-order activities."
Furthermore, the CAG asserted that the company needs to evolve a mechanism for keeping the board informed about projects right from the conceptualisation stage.
In addition, the CAG recommended that NTPC consider adopting super-critical technologies for more projects, as they are cost-effective, efficient and environment-friendly.
It also said NTPC should explore more vendors for sourcing power supply equipment so that better competition and rates can be garnered.
NTPC's power generation capacity currently stands at around 32,000 MW per annum. The company plans to augment this capacity to 75,000 MW by 2017.
(With PTI inputs)