The Centre may miss the ambitious target of adding 36,000 MW power to the national grid by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan by setting up nine 4000 MW each ultra mega power plants.

Contrary to the government’s contention that it would complete the bidding process for all the nine projects by early next year to ensure the projects stood a chance of becoming operational by the end of the Fifth Plan period in 2012, top officials in the Power Ministry are  sceptical about meeting the deadline.

Of the nine proposed coal-based thermal projects announced by the Government early in 2006, the bidding process has been completed in the case of only two —– the Mundra ultra mega project in Gujarat and the Sasan ultra mega project in Madhya Pradesh.

The bidding process of Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) has been initiated. However, uncertainty dogs the remaining five projects as all are entangled in various problems.

If Girye in Maharashtra and Tadadi in Karnataka are facing stiff opposition from environmentalists, the Central government has not received any communication from Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu on the progress made in land acquisition for the proposed project sites Akaltara and Cheyyur respectively, according to the officials.

Shifting of sites
Though both Maharashtra and Karnataka have approached the Union Power Ministry for permission to shift project sites in view of local resistance, the Ministry has conveyed to the two states that alternative locations should also be along coastal areas. So far the two states have not responded to the Ministry’s communication, said one Ministry official.

On the proposed ultra mega project in Orissa, the State government had promised to take steps to acquire land in Sundergarh district. But the Ministry official said the State had not made any headway.

Land acquisition
Expressing concern over the delay, the Power Ministry recently wrote to the concerned State governments urging them to expedite work, including the land acquisition.

As regards the problems relating to land acquisition, members of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to the Power Ministry, at a meeting held here last week, asked Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to help overcome problems by coming up with a uniform rehabilitation policy.

“If the process of setting up of the ultra mega projects continues at the current pace, there is no way that these would be completed during the 11th Plan,” the official said.