The Industrial Development Bank of India-led consortium may get the government's backing for taking over the outstanding dues of foreign lenders, as part of efforts to restart the troubled Dabhol Power project at the earliest.
A counter guarantee is being considered as one of the options for domestic lenders but a decision has been left to the new government, official sources said in New Delhi.
The financial institutions -- IDBI, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India -- plan to set up a special purpose vehicle to take over the outstanding dues of foreign lenders of the 2,184 MW power project, estimated to cost $3 billion.
They had sought the government counter-guarantee when they met the Naresh Chandra committee last week.
When contacted, Chandra told PTI: "All the options are being examined. Let us see the order of the funds. Until and unless everything is finalised, the government can't announce the package."
"The idea is to revive the project. It is too early to say what the package would be. It will be announced only after the new government assumes office," he added.
The domestic lenders are meeting the foreign lenders -- OPIC, ABN Amro, Citibank, Bank of America, ANZ Investment Bank, CSFB and others -- in London on May 12 for taking over their outstanding dues.
The London meeting would be crucial as the lenders could not arrive at a consensus at the earlier meeting on April last week in Singapore.
"Lenders are talking constructively with each other. They have to come to an amicable solution," Chandra said, referring to the meeting with financial institutions on Friday.
While the lenders are eager to resolve the outstanding debt issue with foreign lenders, moves are also on to look into the technical aspect of Dabhol that is lying idle for over a year.
The committee on Dabhol was formed with the objective of hastening up the process and settle the matter with offshore lenders and the two foreign promoters, GE and Bechtel.
Once the outstanding dues are taken over by the domestic lenders, they can proceed for calling open bids to sell the company to a new sponsor.
The lenders, which had an exposure in Dabhol at over Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion), want an early resolution to recover a portion of their funds.
DPC has already been classified as a non-performing asset by ICICI Bank, SBI, Canara Bank, IDBI and others as per the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines.
