"We are going ahead to set up power projects on our own. The state government has proposed a joint venture power project with independent power producers," Power minister A T Mondal told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
The urgency to develop the coal block allotted by the Union Ministry of Coal in 2007, came after the Odisha government recently demanded its cancellation.
Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Meghalaya were given a share of 25 per cent each to set up a joint venture power project with the proposed source from Mandakini B coal block in Odisha which has an estimated 1200 million tonne in deposits.
Stating that Meghalaya was facing acute power shortage, the power minister said, "We need to develop the coal block to meet our power demands. Cancellation of this coal block will result in a huge loss for the state."
The cabinet also decided to involve private and independent power producers for taking up the project.
"We are setting up the project according to the suggestions made by consultants appointed by the Meghalaya Electricity Corporation Ltd," he said.
The government intended to set up two units each of 660 MW for which the tender of expression would be floated soon, Mondal said.
Though the Odisha government has denied land for the project, the minister said, "We will see that land is allocated to the company in a nearby area of the coal factory maybe within 100 km to reduce transportation cost."
Mondal said, "Our projection till 2020 is that we will be keeping around 450 MW which will be allocated to the MeECL the rate of which will be fixed by the State Regulatory Commission."
According to the proposal, 26 per cent cashless equity would be held by the Meghalaya government on which the chief minister has written to the Coal ministry, Mondal added.
