NPTC gets backing of Telangana & AP govts

To set up two projects of 4,000 Mw each in both the states

NTPC Limited chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury on Tuesday met with chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to get their support for the two 4,000 mw size projects it intends to set up in the respective states.

Soon after Choudhury's meeting with Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao, the chief minister's office stated that the company chairman has agreed to set up a 4,000 mw power plant adjacent to its existing power station in the power starved Telangana on a priority basis.

"The chairman of NTPC said that the project work will commence immediately and the first unit will be completed within 39 months," the chief minister's office said in its statement.

In return, the government has promised Choudhury that it would provide whatever extent of land required to establish the project. The chief minister also gave a commitment that his government would take up the coal linkage issue with the Government of India.

During the bifurcation of the undivided Andhra Pradesh, the then UPA Government had assured the people of Telangana that it would ask the NTPC to set up a 4,000 mw plant to help the region overcome the deficit situation in the power sector. On his earlier visit to Hyderabad the NTPC chairman expressed willingness to build a plant here provided the company got enough land and coal with the help of the state government.

NTPC is currently operating a power station with an installed capacity of 2,600 mw at Ramagundam in the vicinity of Singareni coal fields in Karimnagar district.

Earlier in the day Choudhury met with Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to discuss the land and other requirements for a 4,000 mw power plant which it had proposed to Visakhapatnam district.

The company has been pursuing this proposal with the state authorities for some time now, according to the company sources. It has been asking for land either at Pudimadaka near Anakapalli or at Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam, away from the location of its existing Simhadri Power Project which has a 2,000 mw installed capacity.

AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed the industries department principal secretary to finalise a suitable site for the project within 15 days, according to a statement issued by the AP energy department. "The chief minister has requested the NTPC chairman to expedite work on setting up 4,000 mw proposed at Pudimadaka,"it said. The chief minister

A 300 mw solar power project at Guntur, an additional supply of 300 mw of power to AP, allowing the Hinduja Power to use its railway sliding to transport coal for its 1040 nw power project set up in Visakhapatnam were among the other issued discussed by Naidu and Roy Choudhuri, according to the official statement.