NTPC board objects; new site for Jharkhand plant delayed

Objections raised by the NTPC board means a resolution to the dispute over shifting of the site of its proposed 1980 mw power plant in Jharkhand’s North Karanpura area will take another two to three months.The ministries of coal and power had to take a decision on the new project site by the end of August.

The project was stalled after the ministry of coal found that the proposed plant in Chhapra district was on a coal-bearing area with reserves of over six billion tonnes.“We are not ready to shift the site of our proposed power plant,” an NTPC official told DNA. A coal ministry official confirmed NTPC is objecting to the proposed new sites for the power plant.

“We want a win-win situation for both NTPC and Coal India Ltd. If NTPC builds a power plant over that site, CIL will lose huge coal reserves. We hope the issue would be resolved in the coming months”, said a coal ministry official.

The project, with an estimated investment of more than Rs8,000 crore spread over 2,500 acres was planned nine years ago but it could not take off due to the carving out of Jharkhand from Bihar.

Following this, a Rs1,500 crore debt committed to the project by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation was nixed.

In 2008, the ministry of coal objected to the project after Coal India Ltd said the project would block excavation of six billion tonnes of coal reserves that were found under the project site.

In February, an inter-ministerial meeting between the ministries of coal and power, with representations from NTPC and Coal India, had proposed alternate sites for the power project.

While NTPC had asked for sometime to consider the proposal of shifting its power plant to the new site, off late the company board has taken a tough stance against the proposal. The North Karanpura coalfield is spread over 1,230 square km and has proven reserves of 14 billion tonne.