Bajaj Hindusthan-UPPCL deal for coal-fired power plant soon
Top sugar producer Bajaj Hindusthan will mark its foray into the power sector by inking an MoU with Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) for setting up a 1,980 Mw coal-fired power plant in Lalitpur district.
“The MoU will be signed later this month to speed up the project,” UPPCL chairman and managing director Navneet Sehgal told Business Standard.
The company would provide almost 90 per cent of the power generated to the state utility.
“We have identified about 250 hectares of land for the proposed plant to be set up under Case I of competitive bidding,” he informed. The unit would comprise 3 units of 660 Mw totalling 1,980 Mw.
On January 14 this year, UP government had signed MoUs with Lanco Infratech for generating 1,320 Mw and 660 Mw power in Fatehpur and Anpara respectively. Another MoU with Bajaj Hindusthan was signed for co-generating a total of 400 Mw at its 5 sugar mills in the state. Bajaj’s cogeneration plants are likely to attain full steam by 2012. Bajaj is India’s largest sugar producer and controls 16 mills in UP.
Meanwhile, Gammon India had also shown interest in setting up a 1,320 Mw thermal power plant at Sandila in Hardoi district.
“We are planning to set up 13 new thermal power plants with the help of the private sector in UP,” he added. UP is targetting per capita power consumption of 1,000 kilo Watt hour (KWh) by 2014 up from a dismal 340 KWh at present.The state government is working on a roadmap for attaining generation capacity of 25,000 Mw during the 12th Plan (2012-17). Some brown field projects under which generation capacities at existing plants are being enhanced, include Panki, Pariccha and Harduaganj.
“We have identified 3 sites near Greater Noida to set up power plants totalling 3,960 Mw,” Sehgal said. These sites are located in Bulandshahr and Ghaziabad districts.