The row over land acquisition has delayed the construction work on Lanco Babandh Power Ltd's 1320 MW (2x660) plant at Babandh in Orissa's Dhenkanal district by one year.
Construction work on the Rs 4500-crore power plant, which was scheduled to commence in 2009, is yet to take off. The acquisition of private land is the biggest hurdle to begin construction work and implement the project on time.
Of the total land requirement of 1232 acres, only 127 acres are government land with the remaining being private land.
Due to the delay in construction work, the commissioning of the first unit (660 MW) of the power plant which was scheduled to go on stream in 2011 will also be delayed by a year.
Lanco Power had inked an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Orissa government in September 2006 for setting up the power plant.
The company has taken steps to expedite the process of land acquisition by opting for acquiring land through the direct purchase route. The company has bought 250 acres of land from the tenants after obtaining permission from the government under Section 73 (C) of the Land Acquisition Act.
Lanco Power claims to be the only company to have acquired land through the direct purchase route.
For acquisition of the remaining patch of land, notification under Section 6 (1) has already been issued, according to company officials.
These officials stated that the power plant needed minimum displacement as only eight to ten families were to be shifted.
