Anil Ambani monitors progress at Samalkot Plant

Industrialist Anil Ambani today monitored progress at Samalkot power plant, being built by his group in Andhra Pradesh, for which a Rs 3,500 crore turbine order has been placed on US giant General Electric.

Ambani visited the site today and monitored the progress of the 2,400-megawatt plant being built by Reliance Power at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, a group official said here.
   
The visit incidentally followed repeated mention of the Samalkot Plant in a speech given by US President Barack Obama yesterday night in New York.
   
The group chairman addressed the Reliance Power team stations at the site, where construction of the gas-based project is progressing rapidly, the official said. The plant is expected to start generating power by the end of 2011.

US-based General Electric's India unit would manufacture advance turbines for a power plant in Samalkot, Andhra Pradesh, that would create some 1,600 jobs, Obama said.

On a visit to a GE Factory in Schenectady in New York, Obama said that the GE deal was a result of his India visit in November last year.

"Part of the reason I wanted to come to this plant is because this plant is what that (India) trip was all about," he said at the factory.

"As part of the deal we struck in India, GE is going to sell advanced turbines -- the ones you guys make -- to generate power at a plant in Samalkot, India," Obama said.

He told the audience that he is sure that most of them might not have heard the name of this Indian town, which is now creating jobs for them.

"Most of you hadn't heard of Samalkot," he said. "But now you need to know about it, because you're going to be selling to Samalkot, India," he said.

"And that new business halfway around the world is going to help support more than 1,200 manufacturing jobs and more than 400 engineering jobs right here in this community -- because of that sale," Obama said.