MP power project starts production

The Madhya Pradesh government has said its 520-Mw Omkareshwar power project has started generation.

The power project was facing protest from Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) till last month. A consortium of Siemens-Voith and Jaypee group is executing the project.

However, the government has also said all the eight units, of 65 Mw each, of the project would function only when its reservoir will be filled up to 193 metres.

"So far the reservoir has been filled up to 189 metres and only one unit is operational," a power ministry spokesperson informed Business Standard from Indore.

The Omkareshwar power project is built on the downstream Indira Sagar project on the Narmada river in Omakreshwar town (Khandwa district).

The state government has yet to resettle and rehabilitate affected people at 193 meters reservoir level. Of the total 4,900 affected families, an amount of Rs 26.28 crore has been disbursed to 1429 families.

Against the expectations, all units of the project are likely to start production by December this year. The project had to be commissioned and become operational by March this year but a litigation filed by the NBA delayed government's plan to commission the project ahead of schedule.

NBA had recently staged a 33-day long protest against the government's rehabilitation policy for the affected people.

Though one unit of the project has started production, the ruling government is far behind its agenda of adding 1500-Mw of power to the state this year. So far one unit of the 210-Mw Birsinghpur power project in Sidhi district is operational. The project is also facing coal shortage.

"It is running on furnace oil due to short supply of coal," a government source told Business Standard.

NBA recently withdrew its agitation against the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy of the government on certain conditions.

They were demanding agricultural land for the cultivators, land for the adult sons and unmarried adult daughters of the cultivators, according to the R&R Plan of 1993, land for the landless families according to the condition of the environmental clearance and better facilities including sufficient potable water in the R&R sites.

Besides power generation of 1166.56 million units, the project will irrigate an area of 2.83 lakh hectares and generate employment through 360 tonne of fish production.