The categorization of Manoharpur and Manoharour dip side coal blocks allotted to the state owned Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) will not have any immediate impact on the construction plan of the power utility's third and fourth units at Ib Valley, each with a capacity of 660 MW.
"The construction plan of the third and fourth units of OPGC will not be immediately affected even though the coal blocks allocated for the power project fall under the 'No-Go' area. The proposal for tapered coal linkage to OPGC is already placed under most preferred state project for allocation of linkage by the Union ministry of power in the next standing committee meeting of the Ministry of Coal”, state energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said in the state assembly.
"The land for the main plant, water allocation and environment clearance has already been obtained. Long term power purchase agreement (PPA) has been signed with Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco) for 50 per cent power share with the state. Tender for supply of main plant has been floated. Besides, in-principle approval has also been received from Power Finance Corporation (PFC) for funding of the project. Land acquisition as well as forest ad environmental clearance for the coal mine and dedicated railway line are in progress”, he added.
The minister clarified that the Ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) has not refused to grant environmental clearance for mining activities from the coal blocks allocated to OPGC but as per the recent exercise of the ministry, the Manoharpur and Manoharpur dip side coal blocks fall under the 'No-Go' category where mining may be allowed at a later date.
It may be noted that the Orissa government had locked horns with the MoEF on the issue with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seeking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention.
The MoEF, in a recent move, had proposed to categorize the Meenakshi group of coal blocks allocated to the Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) proposed at Sundergarh from 'no go' to 'go' under the condition that the Ministry of Power (MoP) would give up opening up of Manoharpur and Dulinga coal blocks allocated to OPGC and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) respectively.
The move had left the state government officials, especially the OPGC authorities sulking with the state energy secretary P K Jena and the state energy minister Atanu Sabsyasachi Nayak writing letters to the P Uma Shankar and Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in this regard.
Patnaik had recently shot off a letter to the Prime Minister, stating that it would not be fair on the part of MoP to accept such a move at the cost of two other projects, particularly which is the only state owned project.
He had requested the Prime Minister to intervene in the matter and take a favourable stand in the upcoming meeting of the Group of Ministers to clear OPGC's Manoharpur and dip side of Manoharpur coal blocks into the 'go' category.
