The Orissa government may set up a special land acquisition cell to speed up takeover of private land for the 4,800 MW super thermal power plant proposed by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) at Darlipalli in Sundergarh district.
“If NTPC gives a formal proposal, we will create a dedicated land acquisition cell headed by a special land acquisition officer. The proposal has to come to the revenue department,” said a top official source.
Notification under Section 4 (1) of Land Acquisition Act has been issued for acquisition of private land for the Darlipalli project while hearing under Section 5 (B) has been completed. The state Chief Secretary has called for expediting further processing for Section 6 (1) and structural valuation and finalization for Darlipalli village.
NTPC has placed request for advance possession of government land and has made advance deposit of Rs 3.31 crore for the project. The company has also informed that necessary proposal for diversion of 39 acres of forest land has been submitted to the Sundergarh divisional forest officer.
The 4,800 MW power plant coming up on around 3,000 acres of land will be commissioned in three phases of 1,600 MW (2x800) each. All the three phases are scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the 12th Plan period (2016-17).
The power major has also proposed a 3,200 MW plant at Gajmara in Dhenkanal district. The Gajamara project needed 2,900 acres of land and NTPC claimed to have conducted the gram sabha for this project in March this year. The navratna power company, which has an installed capacity of 3,460 MW in Orissa, will pump over Rs 50,000 crore in generating additional capacity of 9,320 MW in the state by the end of 2017. Besides setting up two mega power projects at Darlipalli and Gajamara, NTPC is scaling up the capacity of its existing thermal power station at Talcher by adding two supercritical units of 1,320 MW capacity (2x660 MW). NTPC is also going to upgrade the district headquarter hospital at Sundergarh and set up an intensive care unit within it. It has proposed to establish a power engineering and management institute that is likely to come up in Angul or Dhenkanal district.