Bechtel gets court order to attach MSEB''s Dabhol stake

Our Corporate Bureau
02 June 2005

Bechtel Corporation has announced that it has attached all shares held by the Maharashtra government in the $2.9-billion Dabhol power plant after a court order in the US.

The Maharashtra government holds a 14.6 per cent stake in Dabhol Power Company through Maharashtra Power Development Corporation (MPDC), an SPV of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. Bechtel and General Electric hold the remaining equity.

Bechtel had sought $123 million from MSEB for violation of shareholder rights.

However, Bechtel says that it is even now prepared to help General Electric and the Indian government to revive DPC.

The US District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York signed the order. The order directs that the attachments of assets held by Maharashtra Power Development Corporation, which holds a 14.6 per cent stake in Dabhol Power Corp.

DPC, in which General Electric and Bechtel hold the majority stake was shut down in 2001 when the state of Maharashtra reneged on its legal commitments to purchase power and support completion of the second of two generating units.