Aafrin Kidwai 
The Brahmapuram waste-to-energy plant has suffered yet another setback. The Local Self Government Department has asked the Kochi Corporation to terminate the Concession Agreement executed with GJ Eco Power Pvt Ltd, the company entrusted with the task of installing the plant.
Four years into the controversial Rs 295-crore agreement, the government said the company had failed to take any fruitful step to achieve financial closure, as mandated in the Concession Agreement.
The government has also decided to authorise the managing director of KSIDC (the nodal agency for the implementation of the Urban Solid Waste Management Initiative) to take steps to float a Request for Proposal for the selection of a suitable concessionaire to set up a waste-to-energy plant at Brahmapuram.
Reportedly, GJ has not yet furnished the financing plan and financing documents for the project and demonstrated the financial close even 1,400 days after the signing of the agreement, and has been asking for relaxations and modified support like converting the concessionaire agreement into a lease agreement, providing 100 per cent government guarantee etc, which have only served to delay execution and raise questions about the ability of the company to achieve financial closure,” the order read.
The New Indian Express reports that Giby George, chairman and managing director of GJ Eco Power Pvt Ltd, said in a statement that the Concession Agreement has not been canceled yet. “The final government order confirming the project payment mechanism, which is mandatory for any financial closure, was only issued on January 31, 2020, and requested the company to furnish financial closure in 30 days.
But the significant delay in the project permit clearances discouraged the committed international investors from supporting the project in Kerala and many backed out. The company is closing the investments for the project. The legal proceedings couldn’t be completed because of the delay caused by the lockdown. The civil works we started at the project site also had to be held due to the lockdown,” Giby said.
