Central green panel refuses to give approval to NTPC to set up a 1320 MW coal based project in Madhya Pradesh

Noting that a thermal power plant near human habitat and on agricultural land was not viable, a Central green panel has refused to give approval to NTPC to set up a 1320 MW coal-based project in Madhya Pradesh.The Public Sector Unit had proposed 2x660 MW coal based thermal power plant over 1000 acres of land in Jhikoli and Tumra villages in Narsinghpur district.

However, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Environment Ministry at a recent meeting, noted that the identified land for the power plant seems to be primarily prime agricultural land and the project proponent has failed to give more details on it."The site comprises a vast portion of double crop agricultural land which is unacceptable," noted the panel.

It also felt that locating a power plant near the main town of Gadarwara was not desirable. Moreover, giving huge amount of water (32 cusecs) from Narmada river was not feasible.

Its apprehension was based on the fact that already a large number of such power plants with water allocation by the state government from the river have been submitted for consideration.The NTPC has proposed land requirement of 1,000 acres, which comprises mainly non-irrigated land and irrigated land while coal requirement of 7.5 million tonnes per annum which was to be obtained from the North Karanpura coal blocks in the state.