Mega Power Status to Hisar thermal power project

Chandigarh, Nov 29 (uni) The Union government has granted Mega Project Status to a thermal power generating project to be set up in Hisar district of Haryana.

This status would make the project eligible for benefits under the Mega Project Policy of the Union Ministry of Power.

A request for grant of this special status had been made to the Power Ministry by the Haryana Power Generation Corporation (HPGC).

Giving details here today, Mr Ashok Lavasa, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Power) said that the mega status would reduce the installation cost of the project by Rs 400 crore to Rs 450 crore. The HPGC has already acquired 989 acres of land and has made arrangements for providing 50 cusecs of water for the project, he added.

Mr Lavasa who is also Chairman of HPGC said the process of setting up the project after inviting competitive bids on turnkey basis was in advance stage.

He said the Corporation had decided to set up the 1000/1200 MW thermal power project with unit configuration of 2 x 250 MW to 300 MW and 1 x 500 MW or two units of 500-600 MW. The selection of the size and configuration of units shall benefit the state, he added.

The tentative cost of project shall be around Rs 4000 crore and is proposed to be financed with debt / equity ratio of 80 : 20, Mr Lavasa added.

Mrs Jyoti Arora, Managing Director, HPGC stated that the grant of mega status to this project would also reduce the cost of generation of each unit of electricity by 15 paise. She said the construction work is scheduled to be awarded by January next.

The power generating units of the project would start generation by the year 2009. With the commissioning of these units about 190 / 230 lakh units of electricity will be available to the consumers daily.

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