New site mooted for ultra mega power plant in Karnataka

The village of Niddodi in Dakshina Kannada district is being suggested by the state government as an ideal site for setting up an ultra mega power plant (UMPP).

In a letter to Union Minister of State for Power Jyothiraditya Scindia, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said a team of officials from Power Corporation of Karnataka Limited and Karnataka Udyog Mitra and Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) have carried out a site inspection in and around the coastal areas of Karnataka and had identified Niddodi village, located close to Mangalore, as a suitable location. He urged the Centre to take further steps.

According to officials in the Energy Department, the project will be executed by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). It will have to be inspected by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and approved.

Niddodi is located about one and a half hours from the port of Mangalore, which is expected to make the transport of coal easy for the 4,000 MW plant. Since a power line already runs from Udupi to this place, even transmission of power is not expected to pose a problem, unlike Tadadi where power supply had to be carried out through dense forests, according to officials.

As of now, officials are tightlipped about whether locals have been taken into confidence about this project. “We are still at a very initial stage. We had to suggest a site to the Centre or we might have lost the project and Government of India would have pursued the same with some other state. We, however, do anticipate problems from locals,” the official said.

Earlier, the CEA had shot down the four sites proposed at Shiroor, Honnavar, Divgi and Kanchanbal as suggested by a team of officials from the state and the Centre. The CEA had declared all the four sites unsuitable for setting up an UMPP based on remote sensing technique, which uses satellite data along with geological, topographical, transport, forest cover and other data to identify a suitable site.