MP's prospective power plant list leaves out Jindal project

The Jindal thermal power project has not found a place on the list tabled in the MP assembly recently on forthcoming power projects and those under consideration.

In a written reply to a question raised by Congress MLA Subhash Yadav in the assembly (now adjourned sine die) on projects that had been under consideration till this year, State Energy Minister Kailash Vijayvergiya did not mention the Jindal group's 1,000-Mw power project.

On March 11, the Jindal group signed a memorandum of understanding with the Madhya Pradesh Trade and Facilitation Corporation Ltd (Trifac), a state government undertaking, under which the firm proposed to set up a 1,000-Mw greenfield coal-based pithead power project in stages, in Sidhi district.

The Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation and the department of industry had mentioned the project and its investment size of Rs 4,000 crore in a list circulated to the media and other organisations on different occasions.

The minister mentioned four projects -- the 4,000-Mw ultra mega power project, the 250-Mw Satna power plant, the 1,000-Mw Jai Prakash Power Associates project and a 2,000-Mw project by ISN International Company Ltd "" although the government had not signed a deal with these companies. Among the projects the minister spoke of was the 1,500-Mw NTPC Kahalgaon stage-II plant, for which a deal was signed on September 19 last year.

The state's share in this was only 107 Mw. Then there was the 1,000-Mw NTPC Seeput stage-II project, in which the state had a 131-Mw share. The deal for this project was signed on June 20 last year.

The other projects were NTPC's 1,980-Mw Seeput stage-II project (the deal was determined on December 8 last year), in which the state had a 258-Mw share; a 1,000-Mw (the state's share was 400 Mw) Damodar Valley Corporation project for which a deal was signed on March 3, 2006; a 300-Mw Amarkantak project (the deal was signed on May 30, 2005); a 400-Mw Nuclear Power Corporation project which had a 93-Mw power purchase agreement from Kakrapar power station and a 1,080-Mw project with a 180-Mw power purchase agreement signed on August 8, 2005.

Jindal group-promoted Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd had proposed to set up the first stage of the 1000-Mw power plant, which involved 250 Mw, by 2009. The second and third stages of 250 Mw and 500 Mw, respectively, were to be established later.

Raghav Chandra, the then managing director of Trifac, and Umesh Chandra Jain, director of Jindal Power in New Delhi, had signed the MoU in March this year.