Centre may okay captive coal block for power starved UP

Lucknow, June 14 (UNI) The Centre has agreed, in principle, to allow power-starved Uttar Pradesh to have its own captive coal block with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assuring Chief Minister Mayawati to render all assistance in this regard.

The state government also proposes to set up three new thermal power stations in addition to expanding Obra thermal power plant which would increase the thermal power generation in the state by 5000 MW.

UP, which is facing acute power crunch to the tune of about 4500 MW, is all set to enhance its thermal power generation capacity by about 5000 MW in the near future. Presnetly, the thermal power generation capacity is pegged at about 4000 MW.

The State government has proposed to set up two new thermal power stations with 630x2 MW each at Bara and Karchana in Allahabad districts, besides developing Anpara 'D' and expanding the existing Obra thermal power plants.

Chief Minister Mayawati, who had met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on May 25 last, had requested him to provide coal block to the state to cater to its thermal plants in the state.

''The request of the UP government is under active consideration of the Union Coal Ministry to allow the state to have its coal block possibly from the private sector,'' highly placed official sources told UNI here today.

The thermal plants of the state have to depend upon the Coal India, the public sector undertaking governed by the centre for allotment and supply of coal for the thermal plants.

''Once the captive coal block has been allowed by the Centre, the problem of coal supply would be solved to a great extent,''sources said.

Meanwhile, the UP Power Corpoartion Limited (UPPCL) is upbeat about the future prospects despite rather difficult power scenario during this summer. ''The effective maintenance and other factors has enabled us to register Plant Load Factor (PLF) at 65 per cent, the highest in the recent times,''Avnish Awasthi, the Managing Director of UPPCL told UNI.

The efforts were on to increase the PLF to 75 per cent, the national average, he said.

The turnaround in state thermal power sector comes hard on the heels of the plans of the National Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC) which has announced to set up new thermal power plant of 1,320 MW capacity, while adding fresh capacity of another 1,320 MW at its existing 440 MW Tanda thermal power plant in Ambedkarnagar district.

The new thermal power plant of 1,320 MW capacity is likely to be set up at Shankargarh in Kaushambi near Allahabad and it will be a joint venture between the state government and the NTPC. Both the parties would bear the cost of the project on a 50-50 basis. The 100 per cent power generated from the proposed new thermal plant will be available to UP. The process of further action on the new project would begin from June 15.

The thermal power project in Shankargarh is in the pipeline for over last 15 years.

UNI