Over 12,500 MW projects of 10th Plan still stuck

Even in the penultimate year of the Eleventh Plan, power projects cumulatively adding up to 12,549 MW that were scheduled for commissioning in the Tenth Plan are still to come on stream.According to Government data updated till March 10, of the Tenth Plan projects that are still to be commissioned, nearly half are thermal projects in the Central sector, being implemented by utilities such as NTPC Ltd, Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and NEEPCO.

Contractual problems with suppliers, delays in placement of orders, and hold-ups in the balance of plant packages are among the key reasons for the delays in case of the thermal projects, which total at 9,200 MW. Of these a majority, or 5,190 MW, are Central sector projects, while 1,036 MW are in the State sector and 2,974 MW in the private sector.Hydro projects which have slipped from the Tenth Plan and are yet to be commissioned include 2,321 MW in the Central sector and 558 MW in the State and 470 MW in the private sectors.

Key projects

Key Tenth Plan projects that are still to see the light of the day include a 660-MW first unit of NTPC's Barh Super Thermal project and another 660 MW unit of the power major's North Karanpura project, mainly on account of contractual disputes and delays in finalisation of location of the plant.Two units of NTPC's Sipat project, which add to 1,320 MW, are also hanging fire on account of delays in supply of main plant equipment by Russian firm Powermachines while NLC's 500 MW units in Tamil Nadu were stuck on account of contractual issues and incorrect work assessment.

Other delayed projects include two units of Tata Power-DVC joint venture's Maithon project (1,050 MW), a 500-MW unit of Uttar Pradesh's Anpara C project and a 520-MW unit of BPL power's Ramagundam project.With all-round slippages, the achievement during the Tenth Plan period was a paltry 21,000 MW, around half the targeted 41,000 MW. The Government is pursuing an ambitious target of 78,700 MW for the current Plan period, but the progress on the ground so far has been discouraging.

Cumulatively, as against the overall target of 14,507 MW set for 2009-10, the actual achievement at 9,585 MW was about 66 per cent. The achievement during 2008-09 was 31 per cent (3,454 MW against a target of 11,061 MW) and 57 per cent in 2007-08 (9,263 MW against a target of 16,335 MW).