Right now the once-upon-a-time hi-tech city of Bangalore and southern state of Karnataka (pop. 57 million) in general, are experiencing energy shortages unprecedented in their history. Until the monsoon providentially revived in end July, Bangalore was suffering three-four hour power outages on a daily basis. Inevitably in the smaller towns and cities of the state and the rural hinterland, the situation is much worse.
Although politicians blame the weak monsoon for the thousand unnatural shocks that citizens of this once-admirably governed state have to frequently suffer, the plain truth is that Karnataka’s power deficiencies are entirely man — particularly politician — made. More than a decade ago in 1993, a US-based company under the name and style of Cogentrix Inc had been awarded a contract by the Central and state governments to build a 1,000 Mw coal-fired power plant in Udipi district, near Mangalore. By all accounts it was a hard-won contract and a sum of Rs. 50 crore had been shown by the company as “legal and start-up expenses” — bribes paid to the state’s politicians and bureaucrats as speed money.
Unfortunately Cogentrix’s largesse instead of mollifying the bribes-hungry neta-babu conspiracy, provoked a feeding frenzy and a plethora of objections and review demands questioning how and why the company had landed the contract, and particularly why it had spent such a large amount as start-up expenses surfaced, delaying construction.
Circa 1999, Cogentrix cut its losses estimated at $100 million, packed and left the country never to return. Had it not, by now it would have been supplying 800 Mw of electricity per day to Karnataka, more than enough to cover the peak hour deficiency of 750 Mw of the state’s power grid. The price: recently the Karnataka government contracted with the Chhatisgarh state government to build a coal pithead 2,000 Mw power plant in that state at a cost of Rs.10,000 crore which will supply electricity — ten years hence.
Yet the politicians and bureaucrats who torpedoed the Cogentrix project are still going strong in Karnataka politics and government, and indeed — as their asset declaration statements indicate — prospering mightily in this area of darkness.