The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, denounced the practice by some business houses of signing an MoU for a project with one State and then using that to re-negotiate a better deal for the same project with another State.

He told business houses that entered into MoUs with the State government during the three-day CII Partnership Summit to come out with their requirements and expectations from the government. “We are willing to fulfil all your requirements. But it is not a good practice to use the MoU (signed with AP Government) for a better bargain with another State,” he told delegates at the summit.

He made this statement in the context of some instances in the past when corporate houses signed agreements with the State Government, but later re-negotiated a different deal for the same project with another State government.

Mr Reddy also made it clear that power will not be a constraint for grounding the projects for which MoUs were signed at the Partnership Summit. A total of 243 MoUs were concluded during the three-day summit, involving an investment of over Rs 6,47,00 crore.

“Even today, we have a generation capacity of 15,700 MW, while the peak demand is 13,200 MW. We are expecting the peak demand to go up to 22,200 MW by 2017.

There are some problems with hydro units, apart from gas shortage,” he told mediapersons at the end of the summit.

He said power units of total 9,200 MW were under execution by government-run entities, while another 15,000 MW by private firms.

“It is a matter of time before we (AP) becomes power-surplus,” he said.

Asked why auto companies were showing reluctance to set up projects in the State even after making proposals, Mr Reddy said every State had its own strong points in terms of infrastructure to attract different categories of projects.

>amitmitra@thehindu.co.in

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