The Hindu Business Line : APTEL reserves order on Reliance Fuel plea

NEW DELHI: Appellate energy tribunal, APTEL, on Friday reserved its order on a plea by Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Fuel Resource Ltd (RFRL) to convert its petition into an appeal for expediting response from petroleum regulator on its pipelines appea l.

The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity bench comprising Justices Manju Goel and M B Lal reserved its order over RFRL's request to convert its petition, which is being heard by the tribunal as miscellaneous appeal - into a proper appeal and to direct the board to submit its reply. The bench also observed that the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, before which RFRL's request for transmission license was pending, was giving conflicting versions over the status of application.

The board earlier submitted that application was rejected by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and later contended that it was pending before it. Reliance is setting up a 8,000-MW plant at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and had sought license from the re gulator to lay a pipeline from Kakinada to Dadri, which is estimated to cost Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion).

RFRL's counsel contended that despite assurances that the regulations would come in a week or two, nothing is happening.

"We came here in February and it is May and since then nothing is happening. By their attitude our Rs 15,000 crore investment is hanging in balance since 2006.

"The Board did not deem it fit to look into our application for last seven months and arrive at any decision.

"GRB has taken the view that till their regulation is framed they would not decide. They even say that it should be applied in their proper format," the counsel appearing for RFRL said. - PTI

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