The Himachal Pradesh cabinet has given the 420-mw Reoli Dugli HEP in Lahaul-Spiti, which was earlier allotted to Moser Baer Projects Ltd, to L&T Ltd. The state cabinet decided to allot the project to L&T as it agreed to match the H1 highest bid of 80 crore.

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd laid the foundation of the first state-of-theart Styrene Butadiene Rubber plant at the Panipat petrochemicals hub. The plant, which will produce 120 kt of rubber annually, will be set up in a joint venture with Taiwan State Rubber Corporation (30 per cent) and Marubeni Corporation of Japan (20 per cent) with IOCL holding the remaining 50 per cent stake.

NEEPCO Ltd plans to restart work on the Tuirial HEP in Mizoram. The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure has revised the cost of the 60- mw HEP from 369 crore to 914 crore owing to the delay. The project is scheduled to be commissioned within three months.

Two power projects—1,200-mw North Chennai TPS and 1,000-mw Vallur TPP—in Ponneri taluk in Tiruvallur district of Chennai are expected to be commissioned within a year. While the 2x600 mw North Chennai project of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board will start generation by January next year, the 2x500 mw Vallur project of NTPC Tamil Nadu Energy Company Ltd is scheduled to be completed by year-end.