Atomic power plant at Mannur

Experts to elicit public opinion and assess feasibility and viability factors

Central Atomic Energy Commission will send a special team of experts to Mannur in 15 days to collect public opinion and to assess the feasibility and viability factors. Minister for Power K S Eshwarappa, who informed this to mediapersons in the City on Saturday, said that the proposed power plant will have two units of 600 MW capacity each.

The representatives of Central Atomic Energy Commission visited Bangalore in this regard last week and held discussions with Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. The State will get 30 per cent of the power generated in the proposed project, he said.

Alternative sources
In the wake of opposition from the green groups against hydel and thermal power projects, the State government is planning to extract power from alternative sources. Series of gas-based power projects will come up in the State at Bidadi near Bangalore, Challakere and other places.

The Ministry of Power has agreed to supply gas to the proposed plants from Dabhol in Maharashtra, he stated. The minister expressed concern about the power crisis in the State and informed that 7,000 MW is generated in the State at present, against the actual demand of 11,000 MW. He said that initiatives are taken to achieve self-reliance in power generation.

The eighth unit of Raichur Thermal Power Station with 250 MW generation capacity and a thermal power station near Udupi of 500 MW capacity, which will be operated on PPP basis, will be commissioned by March 2010. The contribution to State grid from non-conventional sources like wind and solar energy will increase by 500 MW this year, he said.

It has been planned to generate 8,000 MW power in the next 10 years as demand for power is increasing at a rate of 10 per cent per annum.
The State government has entered into an MoU with BHEL and NTPC to establish ultra modern power plant of 4,000 MW capacity in Kudagi near Bijapur district, while another pact has been inked with the Government of Chattisgarh to establish a thermal power plant of 2,000 MW capacity there. Commissioning of these projects will help the State to achieve self-reliance, he stated.

Law and order problem
Eshwarappa preferred to call the protest against thermal power project in Hanakona of Uttar Kannada district as a law and order problem and said that inquiry in this regard is on.

He alleged that the protest was provoked by commercial interests which had bagged tender to extract shells on the sea shore in the region.

The Gram Panchayat, State and Central governments have given consent for the project in the year 2007 itself and the question to backtrack from the same doesn’t arise at all. Be it Gundya, Tadadi or Hanakona, the projects will be implemented by adopting eco-friendly technologies, he said.

Replying to a query, the minister said that the technical snag in Bellary power plant will be addressed by Sunday. He informed that licence issued to 28 companies to generate solar and wind power has been cancelled, as they failed to abide by the deadline to commence the projects.