Vemagiri power plant begins trial production

The Rs 1,200-crore Vemagiri power plant of the GMR group in Rajahmundry has begun its trial production. The actual commercial production will commence in January 2006, according to Srinivas Bommidala, managing director of Vemagiri Power Generation Limited. The construction of the plant began last year.

Speaking to Business Standard during his Rajahmundry visit, Bommidala said the installed capacity of the plant was 388 mw as against the contracted capacity of 370 mw. The machinery with advanced class gas turbine technology, which uses natural gas as fuel, was imported from the US.

"GAIL India has agreed to supply 1.64 mmscmd of gas as per the agreement. GMR has also entered into a power purchase agreement with APTransco," he added. The Vemagiri power unit is the third project of the GMR group, the other two are GMR Power Corporation in Chennai and GMR Energy in Mangalore.

The 200-mw power plant in Chennai is equipped with a sewerage treatment plant through which 4,200 cubic metres of clean water is produced out of 7,200 cubic metres of sewage. It was awarded ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.

The GMR Energy power plant in Mangalore is the world's largest and India's first barge-mounted combined cycle power plant with a 220-mw capacity. The naphtha-based plant is located off the Mangalore coast and was also awarded ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification, he said.

Talking about the future projects of the GMR group, Bommidala said the Rs 700-crore Alakonda project in Uttaranchal is expected to begin commercial production by 2011.