Lenders seem to have lost all hopes about the revival of Maheshwar hydro project which was conceived in 1998 but yet to see light of the day. National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) which was given the mandate to revive the project has put together a plan to salvage the project. The NMCC has proposed to rope in two new lenders for the cash strapped project as the existing lenders, including the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), are not in a position to provide additional funds. The lenders identified by the NMCC are Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and PTC Finance.
The existing lenders, however, have expressed doubts on the revival plan proposed by the NMCC as they feel the project has an exorbitant construction cost and an expensive R&R plan. According to NMCC additional funding to the tune of Rs. 500 crore is enough to revive and complete the project which is being disputed by the existing lenders.