Land acquisition takes off for Sundergarh UMPP

There is finally some headway on the 4000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) in Orissa proposed to be set up at Bhedabahal in Sundergarh district. Land acquisition work for the project has taken off.The UMPP, entailing an investment of Rs 16,000 crore, requires 3100 acres of land. The Orissa Integrated Power Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for UMPPs, has already invited 'Request for Qualification' (RFQ) for this project. The deadline for responding to the RFQ is September 30.Water for this UMPP has been allocated from the Ib river and check dams and barrages would be put up on the river for this purpose. It may be noted that Meenakshi, Meenakshi-B and Dipside Meenakshi coal blocks have been allotted for the UMPP with a total reserve of 880 million tonnes.

A high-level meeting chaired by the state Chief Secretary B K Pattnaik was held on the site selection of the UMPPs. The meeting was also attended by senior officials of PFC and Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

Besides the Bhedabahal UMPP, it has been proposed to set up two additional UMPPs in the state. While the Centre had proposed to set up the second UMPP in Bolangir district, five locations were short-listed for the third UMPP- Kirtania, Dhamara, Astaranga, Paradeep and Gopalpur. The Centre has sought additional information on the suitability of these locations and the concerned departments of the state government would furnish the information on the same, said an official source.Orissa would get 1300 MW from the first UMPP at Bhedabahal and 50 per cent of the power generated by the other two UMPPs.

The Orissa government has signed MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with as many as 27 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for setting up power plants with a combined capacity of 32,420 MW. The state government had asked 17 of these IPPs to go for super critical technologies.

In addition to this, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has announced to set up two new super thermal power plants in the state- 4800 MW plant at Darlipalli in Sundergarh district and one 3200 MW plant at Gajmara in Dhenkanal district.

The navratna power utility, which has an installed capacity of 3460 MW in Orissa, will pump over Rs 50,000 crore in generating additional capacity of 9320 MW in the state by the end of 2017.Besides establishing two mega power projects at Darlipalli and Gajamara, NTPC is also scaling up the capacity of its existing thermal power station at Talcher by adding 1320 MW (2x660 MW) through two supercritical units.