Kochi, Wednesday, January 21, 2009: The Chennai unit of CBI wich is probing the  SNC Lavalin case submitted the probe progress report of the sensational SNC Lavalin case before Kerala High Court today, in which some political bigwigs of Kerala politics and officials are said to be involved. According the CBI sources, it has seeked the permission of Governor and Chief Secretary before prosecuting the accused.

There are eleven accused in the case, according to sources, the CBI has been able to go ahead with the case after legal cell of CBI in Delhi and Chennai gave approval regarding submitting the charge sheet. It is learnt a major headway has been achieved in the probe.

SNC Lavalin case:

The Kerala government had ordered the renovation and augmentation programme at Pallivasa, Sengulam and Panniar hydel power stations (aggregate capacity 115 MW) in 1996. Pinarayi Vijayan of CPM was the Power mMinister of Kerala then. The awarding of the project has run into controversy because the CAG’s performance audit of the program found fault with it. Neither the renovated power stations were generating power at least to the same level as that of pre-renovation, nor did the promised aid to the MCC (Malabar Cancer Centre) materialize.

The three powers stations in the Periyar river basin with a total of 12 generating machines in the capacity range of 5 to 15 MW and installed during 1940 to 1964, were generating much below the design capacities for a variety of reasons. Therefore, an agreement was signed by the KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board) with the Canadian project consulting company, SNC Lavalin in February 1996 for the supply of project equipment and related services under Canadian credit. Within a few months, the LDF came to power and the new Power Minister took the initiative in re-negotiating the price and other terms and conditions of the contract and also visited Canada for discussions in this regard before finally awarding the contract. Experts argue that the renovation and augmentation could have been done by local engineers of KSEB, leave alone national and international level players. When the project was finally executed in 2001, generation of power did not reach even the pre-renovation levels. Experts argue that it was a clear case of political corruption. SNC Lavalin had promised to pay Rs. 98.3 crores to the Malabar Cancer Centre (MCC) as a reward for award of the contract to them at an estimated cost of Rs. 283 crores.