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NTPC Limited chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury on Tuesday met chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to get their support for the two 4,000-Mw projects it intends to set up in the respective states.
Soon after Choudhury’s meeting with Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao, the chief minister’s office stated the company chairman had agreed to set up a 4,000-Mw power plant adjacent to its existing power station in the power-starved Telangana on a priority basis.
“The chairman of NTPC said that the project work will commence immediately and the first unit will be completed within 39 months,” the chief minister’s office said in a statement.
In return, the government has promised NTPC it would provide whatever extent of land required to establish the project. The chief minister also gave a commitment that his government would take up the coal linkage issue with the Government of India.
During bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the then UPA government had assured the people of Telangana it would ask the NTPC to set up a 4,000-Mw plant to help the region overcome the deficit situation in the power sector.
On his earlier visit to Hyderabad, the NTPC chairman expressed willingness to set up a plant here provided the company got enough land and coal with the help of the state government.
NTPC currently operates a power station with an installed capacity of 2,600 Mw at Ramagundam in the vicinity of Singareni Coalfields in Karimnagar district.
Earlier in the day, Choudhury met AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to discuss the land and other requirements for another 4,000-Mw power plant, which it had proposed in Visakhapatnam district.
NTPC has been pursuing this proposal with the state authorities for sometime now, according to company sources. It has been asking for land either at Pudimadaka near Anakapalli or at Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam, away from the location of its existing Simhadri power project, which has a 2,000-Mw installed capacity.
AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed the industries department principal secretary to finalise a suitable site for the project within 15 days, according to a statement issued by the AP energy department.
“The chief minister has requested the NTPC chairman to expedite work on setting up the 4,000 Mw project proposed at Pudimadaka,” it said.
A 300-Mw solar power project at Guntur, an additional supply of 300 Mw of power to AP, allowing Hinduja Power to use its railway sliding to transport coal for its 1,040-Mw power project set up in Visakhapatnam were among the other issued discussed by Naidu and Choudhury, according to the official statement.
