A three-member, inter-ministerial committee has been formed to investigate Lanco Infrastructure for the company's alleged irregularities in bidding for solar projects under the National Solar Mission, the Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah, said on Sunday.
The committee would submit its report in one month, Dr Abdullah told Business Line at Coimbatore, where he had come to launch the 2-MW wind power turbine of Gamesa India.
The panel
Asked for more details, a senior official of MNRE said today that the investigating committee would comprise Joint Secretaries from the MNRE, Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Last week, the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, which is “a public interest research and advocacy organisation”, said that its investigations showed blatant flouting of tender conditions by Lanco.
With an objective to engendering a well spread-out development of the solar industry, the tender for Batch I of the first phase of the Solar Mission had stipulated a one-group-one-project rule.
CSE has alleged that Lanco, using complex holding structures, flouted this rule and bagged not less than nine projects, with a total capacity of 235 MW. CSE calculated that these nine projects would give the Lanco group an assured revenue flow of Rs 13,000 crore over next 25 years. Lanco has denied any flouting of norms.