NTPC seeks land to lay water pipeline for Darlipalli STPP

NTPC Ltd, the country’s biggest power generating utility, has sought 525 acres land from the Odisha government to build a water pipeline corridor for its 1,600 Mw super thermal power plant (STPP) at Darlipalli in Sundargarh district.

The land is to be set aside in 21 villages spread across Sundargarh and Jharsuguda districts. It includes 278 acres private land, 195 acres government land and 52 acres of forest land.

The state water resources department has already accorded in-principle allocation of 160 cusecs of water in favour of NTPC from Hirakud reservoir for the Darlipalli plant. For water intake, underground pipelines (2x1000 mm diameter) are to be laid from Hirakud reservoir to the project site through Jharsuguda district.

“We require a corridor of approximately 42 km length on Right of User basis for three years to carry out the construction activities in the districts of Sundargarh and Jharsuguda. After the pipelines are laid and buried, the land could be returned to the owners for their normal use. It is requested to accord administrative approval for NTPC to use this land on the Right of User basis,” NTPC general manager S K Reddy wrote to P K Jena, principal secretary (energy).

NTPC hopes to commission the Darlipalli plant by 2018. The company has secured coal linkage for this project in the form of Dulanga coal block with mining capacity of seven million tonnes per annum (mtpa) under command area of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) and Pakri Barwadih block in Bihar’s Hazaribagh district with capacity to produce 12.5 mtpa coal. Odisha will get 50 per cent power from the Darlipalli super thermal plant. NTPC has also committed to establish a medical college near Sundergarh.

The maharatna firm needed 1,652 acres of land for this power station, the cost of which has been estimated at Rs 12,850.07 crore.