NEW DELHI: Opposition BJP today accused AAP government of creating hurdles in setting up of four proposed substations in the national capital by not providing required land for the Rs 7,791 crore project to ensure round-the-clock power supply.
"Those (AAP government) who claim to be well wishers of people have out of their politics of controversy and seeking a chance to belittle the Central government have led the project to a deadlock for the past three and half months," Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said.
The project for comprehensive upgradation of Delhi's power situation involves construction of four 2,000 MVA substations at Rajghat, Tughalaqabad, Dwarka and Karampura.
The Opposition's claim come a day after Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal charged the Delhi government with not providing land for the proposed substations.
As per the Central Electricity Act, the Delhi government is required to provide land for construction of substations. Central government had agreed to pay Rs 100 crore at the rate of Rs 9 crore per acre to Delhi Government as price of the required land, Gupta said in a press conference at Vidhan Sabha.
It is the price of land which the state government will need to purchase from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
"The Delhi government, however, is adamant on its demand of 20 per cent lease price of land every year for the next 35 years. The total amount sits at Rs 700 crore instead of Rs 100 crore making the project financially unviable by escalating prices of electricity that will finally be borne by the consumers", he said.
"Delhi government has so far made no efforts to allot land for even a single substation," Gupta claimed.
The LOP, along with two other BJP MLAs, met Lt Governor Najeeb Jung seeking his intervention in the matter.
"We requested him (Jung) for allocation of land for the substations, as DDA chairman, at a token amount of Rs one in public interest," the BJP leader added.
The issue of land for construction of power substations in Delhi is an old one and had been raised during the previous Sheila Dikshit government as well.