Orissa clears 11 power projects worth over Rs 65,000 crores

Bhubaneswar, Sep 20: The Orissa government today cleared the proposal of eleven power companies to set up thermal power plants in the state with a total investment of nearly Rs.65,000 crores to generate 15,520 MW of power.

The High Power Clearance Authority chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik cleared the power projects paving the path for signing of MoUs on September 26, Energy Minister S N Patra told newsmen here.

Of the eleven power projects, the Reliance ADB group would set up a 4000 MW power plant at an estimated cost of Rs.18,000 crores.The Company had shown keen interest to set up 12,000 MW power plant at Hirma in Jharsugura district with an investment of Rs 60,000 crores.

Mr Patra said the Reliance ADB had submitted the proposal for setting up of 4000 MW power plant during the first phase which would be subsequently enhanced to 12,000 MW.

Five private companies--namely Calcutta Electric Supply Company, Tata Power Company Limited,ESSAR Power Limited,VISA Power Limited and Jindal Photo Film Limited have proposed to set up 1000 MW power plant each.

The Sterlite Energy Power Limited would set up 2400 MW power plant at an investment of Rs.7481 crores while the Lanco Group would go for a 1320 MW power plant with an investment of Rs.4500 crores.

. The Energy Minister said the government had decided to appoint a nodal officer for each power project having investment of more than Rs.5000 crores. It was decided at the meeting that the minister would review the progress of all power projects once in two months while the chief minister would do so once in three months.

Mr.Patra said with the signing of the MoUs for eleven power projects, Orissa would emerge as the energy hub of the country.The government, he said, had already signed three MoUs with GMR, Mahanadi Abon and Nab Bharat Eneregy Limited in the past.These three companies together would generate 3000 MW of power.

This apart,the state government undertaking Orissa Hydel Power Corporation would set up a 1000 MW power plant and the United States based AES would add 500 MW of power plant to its existing IB Valley power plant.

The Energy Minister said all the private companies have agreed to provide 20 per cent power of their total generation to the state besides power above 80 per cent plant load factor and six paisa per unit export of power towards environment protection charges.

He said the state government would be benefited by Rs.150 crores per anum from a generation of 1000 MW power.

UNI