THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The planning board has recommended that the clauses in the concessionaire agreement for the proposed Chalai waste-to-energy plant
should be examined in detail before going ahead with the project. The
recommendation was made at a meeting convened by planning board
vice-chairman K M Chandrasekhar to discuss the flaws in the agreement.

The city corporation had, two days ago, decided to abstain itself from
signing the agreement following a legal opinion that warned it of
dangerous clauses in the agreement. Earlier this month, the
representatives of the state government had admitted that the Rs
60-crore project had run into troubles at a meeting convened by planning
commission deputy chairman in New Delhi.

Sources said the
meeting also touched upon possibilities to evolve fault-free project
models in the state with minimum risk. It stressed the need to analyse
the clauses in the project agreement before proceeding with any plan
besides reiterating some suggestions made at the Delhi meet.

As
per the minutes of the Delhi meeting available with TOI, it was stated
that the ministry of new and renewable energy provides repayable grant
of up to Rs 2 crore per MW, subject to a maximum of Rs 10 crore, for
each waste-to-energy plant.

Besides, the ministry of finance
also provides viability gap funding support up to 20% of the project
cost. In addition, customs and excise duty
concessions are also provided for such projects. ”We will have another
round of discussions on the future of Chalai project. As of now, we had
preliminary discussions on incorporating success models as well as
generating the pool of fund with the assistance of the central
government,” an official said.

The government had, in the wake
of the Delhi meet, decided to seek the technical expertise of the PPP
and infrastructure division of planning commission for such projects in
future.