2-3 Ultra mega projects in each state: Shinde

New Delhi, Sep 25: Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today said that the country will soon have two to three ultra mega power projects in each state from the current eight 4,000 MWs capacity projects underway.

The number has gone up from five to eighth as of now and it will only increase till each state will have two to three of these projects each, Mr Shinde said here.

''The power purchase Agreement (PPA) for Mundra in Gujarat and Sasan in Madhya Pradesh will be executed on October 9,'' Mr Shinde told reporters here.

The latest addition of the ultra mega projects bandwagon was in Tamil Nadu. The other seven projects are coming up in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

PFC the nodal agency for setting up these projects, has already received preliminary bids from more than a dozen companies including Tata Power, Reliance Energy, GMR and State-run NTPC Ltd., the Sasan (MP) and Mundra (Gujarat) projects.

Besides Tamil Nadu, states like Jharkhand and Goa had also asked the power ministry to consider including these states for setting up ultra mega plants, each of which would require an investment of upto Rs 20,000 crore. ''For Goa we will start with 250 MWs'', Mr Shinde said.

UNI