State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) would soon enter large scale power generation by setting up a 600Mw coal-based power plant in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh at a cost of Rs 2,700 crore.
SCCL had already acquired land for the project, which would come up in Jaipur mandal, and obtained necessary environmental clearances. The company is in final stages of negotiations with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited for plant equipment supplies. It would soon sign power purchase agreements with APTransco and discoms.
“The project will not only give an impetus to the growth in the Telangana region, but will also help the state bridge the demand-supply gap in the power sector to a large measure. SCCL will generate equity from its internal resources and the balance will be mobilised as debt,” chief minister K Rosaiah said in a press statement on Sunday.
The project is expected to be synchronised to the grid by December 2012, he added.
“The remnant coal locked up permanently in an abandoned mine at Srirampur will be sourced for the power project. This mine will produce about 2.5 million tonne per year,” said Rosaiah, who will lay the foundation stone for the project shortly.
APGenco chairman and managing director K Vijayanand apprised the chief minister of the progress on the 500Mw Bhupalapalli power project (Kakatiya thermal power plant Stage-I). The project, which would meet the summer demand, would be completed as scheduled by March 2010.
The chief minister said the recent unprecedented floods and heavy rains had brought power generation to a halt at the Srisailam left bank and right bank (770 Mw) power houses. “Work on restoration of the left bank power house was already complete and the plant will resume generation of 900 Mw in four days. Restoration works at the right bank power house will commence once the flood recedes completely,” Rosaiah said.
Keeping in view the future power demand, he said, APGenco had taken up 21 new power projects with a total capacity of 16,195 Mw at an estimated cost of Rs 84,950 crore in the last four years.
“Of them, two projects – 500Mw Narla Tata Rao thermal power station Stage-IV and 420Mw Rayalaseema Thermal Power Project (RTPP) Stage-II, and 117Mw Priyadarshini Jurala – had been commissioned and construction of 10 other projects has been taken up. The remaining nine projects are under different stages of execution,” the chief minister said.
