Ipicol seeks govt nod to allot land to NTPC

The state government's investment promotion agency Industrial Promotion &Investment Corporation of Odisha  Ltd (Ipicol) has soughtadministrative approval from the energy department to allot land to NTPC for its 1600 Mw super thermal power project at Gajamara in Dhenkanal district.NTPChad sought a total of 717.087 acres of land for ash dyke (402.577acres), reservoir area (101.6 acres), ash pipe line corridor (32.57acres), rail corridor (144.53 acres) and make up water pump house(three acres).

Ipicol,however, has revised the land requirement at 676.73 acres. Theassessment by Ipicol is on the basis of prevailing guidelines ofCentral Electricity Authority (CEA) and documents submitted by NTPC.

“The total revised land requirement (including government, private and forest land) for ash dyke, reservoir, ash pipeline corridor andrailway corridor with main approach road of Gajamara project is estimated at around 676.73 acres”, G Mathi Vathanan, chairman andmanaging director, Ipicol wrote to principal secretary (energy) P KJena.

Ipicolhad asked NTPC to furnish supporting documents related to routesurvey, layout plan along with sectional views and area calculation.NTPChad made a power point presentation to a committee consisting of representatives from the department of water resources, Odisha StatePollution Control Board (OSPCB) and Ipicol on their land requirement.Notification under Section 4 (1) of Land Acquisition Act has already been issuedfor acquisition of private land for the Gajamara project. NTPC hasurged the state government to expedite issue of 6 (1) notification.The Gajamara project needs 1013 acres of land.

Ofthe total land needed for the Gajamara project, 795.85 acres ofprivate land is to be acquired. The land is to be acquired in fouraffected villages- Talabarkote (440.23 acres), Patra bhag (194.61acres), Manipur (99.46 acres) and Siaria (61.55 acres). NTPC has tofork out Rs 152.54 crore for acquisition of this patch of privateland.

NTPCwill set up a power engineering institute at Dhenkanal that is linkedto its Gajamara plant.NTPCis setting up another super thermal power plant proposed atDarlipalli in western Odisha's Sundargarh district.This power plantis expected to be commissioned by 2018.

TheDarlipalli super thermal power project will draw water from the Hirakud reservoir in the Mahanadi river. NTPC has secured coallinkage for this project in the form of Dulanga coal block with minecapacity of seven million tonnes per annum (mtpa) under command areaof Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) and Pakri Barwadih block in Bihar'sHazaribagh district with 12.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa).