Slow progress by L&T for supply of DHDS utilities and other offsites to the 1.8 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) desulphurised diesel plant might cause an anticipated project delay of five months, HPCL said in a status report briefing the petroleum minister about its projects.

The financial progress of the project was only 12 per cent because the actual expenditure to the project was Rs 95.38 crore as against the expenditure target of Rs 124.05 crore, it said adding the total outlay for 1998-99 was Rs 400 crore and the expenditure against the outlay was only Rs 15.77 crore.

HPCL's project at Vishakapatnam is being set up to bring down the sulphur content in the diesel from one per cent to 0.25 per cent, it said. The state-owned company had awarded the contract to L&T in December lastyear, to be ready for commissioning by April 1999, the note said and pointed that orders for other major equipment to the project had been placed.

According to the contractor's progress statistics, the note said, the physical progress for the sulphur pacakge was actually 18.1 per cent as against the target schedule of 24.7 per cent. The construction package for the same was only four per cent as against the target schedule of 10.1 per cent, the note added.