 "Tata Power digs original plan, now keen on shore-based power plant")
The company has opted for a shore based plant since it aims to use imported coal to meet its requirement. Also, it has gone for a change in project design, and is now keen to set up a new plant of around 1,300 Mw plant capacity.Though, Tata Power was allocated the Mandakini coal block for the project, the block got de-allocated as the result of a Supreme Court order that saw scrapping of licenses of over 200 coal blocks alloted arbitrarily.
"Tata Power is keen on setting up its power plant at Gopalpur. The company will use imported coal to meet its requirement. We have asked the company to submit a fresh proposal", said an official source.
Officials at Tata Power were not immediately available to comment.
Tata Power had originally proposed a 1,000 Mw coal-fired power project at Naraj near Cuttack. But, mounting protests from green activists owing to the deleterious impact of emissions from the power station on wildlife at the nearby Chandaka-Dampada sanctuary had forced the company to switch to gas based mode.
The company's coal-based plant had hit a roadblock owing to its proximity to the Chandaka-Dampada wildlife sanctuary. The plant site was located within a distance of only 1.5 km and wildlife clearance was mandatory for any project to be located within 10-km radius of a national park or wildlife sanctuary.
This had prompted Tata Power to alter the technology for the power project. The change in technology of the proposed power plant (coal-based to gas-fired) was necessitated by delay in obtaining clearances from the State Wildlife Board and National Wildlife Board.
The company had thereafter submitted a revised application to the state government for a gas-based plant, presumably banking on supplies from the Surat-Paradip natural gas pipeline proposed by GAIL India Ltd.
But the looming uncertainty in gas availability prompted the company to seek an alternative site for its power plant. This was despite the fact that 1,000 acres of land was already acquired for the project with Tata Power forking out Rs 100 crore as land purchase cost to Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco).
The company had inked an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the Odisha government for establishment of a 1,000 Mw coal-based plant on September 26, 2006. It had later proposed to scale up capacity of the power plant to 2,000 Mw.
Based on Tata Power's request, the state government had approved the change of site from Naraj-Marthapur to Begunia where 975 acres of land were identified for the project.
