Reliance Power finally quits Dadri project citing gas shortage

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Anil Ambani's Reliance Power to pull out from its 7,480 MW gas-based power project in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, and return around 1,000 acres acquired for the project.

Reliance Power had earlier challenged an Allahabad High Court verdict in 2009 that had in effect cancelled the acquisition of 2,500 acres of agricultural land for the Rs25,000-crore power project. However, the company has withdrawn its challenge, citing the acute shortage of natural gas in the country.

A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur disposed of the appeal as ''infructuous'' after the company withdrew the petition.

However, the apex court has left open the issue of refunding the compensation paid by the company to farmers whose land was acquired.

Reliance Power's counsel Mahesh Agarwal said that ''the company will approach the state government for refund of over Rs85 crore paid to the farmers for the acquired land.''

Reliance submitted that ''Ten years after the project was originally envisioned, the current situation is that there is acute shortage of domestic natural gas supply and therefore, it is virtually impossible to obtain / secure fresh allotment of domestic natural gas required to run the plant.''