DHAVAL KULI{ARNI MUMBAI, APRIL 20 THE Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Limited (RGPPL) is finally close to inking a comprehensive service agreement (CSA) with General Electric (GE), wherein the US-based company is said to have agreed to bear 50 per cent of the costs incase of a compressor failure in the machines and also consented to reduce prices of spares by over 37 per cent. The company, which has supplied the 9 FA class turbines for the RGPPL project (which was revived in 2005 to take over the assets of the erstwhile Dabhol Power Company (DPC) promoted by the controversial Enron Corporation), has also given time schedules for fully operationalising around 1,900 MW capacity by the end of the year. The move is considered to be a major boost for the beleaguered power project. RGPPL sources told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity that they had tied up the commercial terms for the agreement and the legal vetting of the document was underway. They further added that the CSA between RGPPL and GE was likely to be inked later this month. The project, originally rated at 2,150 MW, has seen frequent breakdowns since its revival, and was pumping just 340 MW power into the state grid on Wednesday, down from 650 MW last week. A source who is also an RGPPL official and is among those involved in the exercise, said the draft of the CSA had a clause wherein GE would bear 50 per cent of the costs incase there was a compressor failure. "All catastrophic failures have been on the compressor side," he added, stating that the costs and time involved in shipping the machine to the GE shop floor for repairs were huge. The GE will also maintain a list of mandatory spares and charge 37 per cent less than the published cost for spares. "They have agreed to cut their cost of spares. It will really help us," the source added. Negotiations with the US based company have been held over around two months by the high power committee (HPC) set up by the Centre to look into the inking of the CSA. The agreement had been a bone of contention between the RGPPL stakeholders and GE. The revival costs of the project have swelled upwards from the original of around Rs 10,030 crore and frequent breakdowns of the turbines have added to costs. GE had earlier attributed breakdowns in the project to preservation problems and taken a stand that the project had not been moth balled properly when it was shut down. In a meeting of the committee of secretaries held in New Delhi, the Maharashtra government had demanded that GE be forced to sign the CSA for the project. It had also taken a strong stance over frequent breakdowns at the RGPPL plant and the rising costs of repairs. The state's stand is that if no maintenance contract was signed with GE there was "no legal obligation" on the company.