Centre unhappy with progress of Kudgi project

No headway in acquiring land for mega thermal power plant

Hoping to start the construction of the project at least by the middle of this year, the NTPC had handed over a cheque of Rs 26.22 crore to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa for acquiring land in February this year. However, the State government has not made any headway in acquiring the land for the multi-crore project.

“Though the Centre had given nod to the public sector company to set up a project in Karnataka, we are not happy with the progress made in acquiring the land,” Union Minister for Power Sushil Kumar Shinde told Deccan Herald on the sidelines of Economic Editors Conference here on Tuesday.

When the State government had requested for the sanctioning of a new project after it faced land acquisition problems in Ultra Mega Power Project at Tadadi in Uttar Kannada district, the Centre asked the NTPC to set up a project in
Kudgi.

“Despite the State government promising to provide all infrastructure for the project, we are not happy about the way the project is moving,” the minister said.
“The State must understand that we have lot of other commitments in the power sector and can’t waste our energy for just one project,” he added.

MoU signed

The MoU for the  Rs 20,000 crore project was signed between the Karnataka government, NTPC and the State-held Power Company of Karnataka Ltd in January 2009.
About 3,500 acres had been identified for the 4000-MW project while the NTPC required 1,900 acre land to begin with. Though the State government had issued notification for acquiring the land, it was facing hurdle from farmers protest.

The super-critical thermal power plant will have five units of 800 MW each and the first phase comprising three generating units is expected to be commissioned by 2013-14.
The proposed plant will have a capacity to generate 80 million units of power a day, and 50 per cent of it will be supplied to Karnataka. The remaining units will be shared among other states through the Central Grid.