By Express News Service KOCHI: The much-touted Rs 295-crore waste-to-energy plant at Brahmapuram has suffered another roadblock. The Local Self Government Department has asked the Kochi Corporation to terminate the Concession Agreement executed with GJ Eco Power Pvt Ltd, the company entrusted with the task of installing the plant. Four years into the agreement, the government decided on such a harsh measure citing the company’s failure to take any fruitful step to achieve financial closure, as mandated in the Concession Agreement. The government has also decided to authorise the managing director of KSIDC (the nodal agency for the implementation of the Urban Solid Waste Management Initiative) to take steps to float a Request for Proposal for the selection of a suitable concessionaire to set up a waste-to-energy plant at Brahmapuram. According to the order issued by Principal Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan, the Concession Agreement specified that the award of the concession shall be subject to the satisfaction of the “conditions precedent” mentioned therein. “One of the conditions precedent is the furnishing of the concessionaire’s financing plan and financing documents for the project and demonstrating financial close. The conditions precedent shall be complied with within 180 days of the date of agreement. But the concessionaire has not yet furnished the financing plan and financing documents for the project and demonstrated the financial close even 1,400 days after the signing of the agreement, and has been asking for relaxations and modified support like converting the concessionaire agreement into a lease agreement, providing 100 per cent government guarantee etc, which have only served to delay execution and raise questions about the ability of the company to achieve financial closure,” the order read. The order said that the director of GJ Eco Power Pvt Ltd had requested balance payment mechanism for the company to meet the expenses over and above the power tariff fixed by the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC), in order to overcome the hurdles for achieving financial closure. “The government issued the GO specifying the mode of payment of the expenses over and above the power tariff fixed by KSERC. It was also ordered therein that GJ Eco Power Pvt Ltd shall achieve the financial closure within 30 days from the date of order, failing which necessary action will be initiated to terminate the Concession Agreement in accordance with the relevant clauses therein. The time limit so allowed to GJ Eco Power Pvt Ltd to achieve the financial closure expired on 01/03/2020. But the Concessionaire has not demonstrated the financial closure till date,” Sarada said in the order. Giby George, chairman and managing director of GJ Eco Power Pvt Ltd, said in a statement that the Concession Agreement has not been cancelled yet. “The final government order confirming the project payment mechanism, which is mandatory for any financial closure, was only issued on January 31, 2020, and requested the company to furnish financial closure in 30 days. But the significant delay in the project permit clearances discouraged the committed international investors from supporting the project in Kerala and many backed out. The company is closing the investments for the project. The legal proceedings couldn’t be completed because of the delay caused by the lockdown. The civil works we started at the project site also had to be held due to the lockdown,” Giby said. Mayor Soumini Jain said a special council will be convened on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

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