NTPC to invest Rs 6,600 cr in UP power project

State-run NTPC would invest around Rs 6,600 crore for setting up a coal-based power project at Kanpur, on which the work is expected to start from January 2012.

The proposed 1,320 Mw project is likely to come up at Bilhaur, near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

"The work on ground for the thermal power project will begin in the first week of January next year," sources told PTI.

The project comes under the constituency of Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal. The coal linkage is yet to be recommended by Central Electricity Authority, sources said.

The Memorandum of Understanding for the availability of land and water for the project was signed in December, 2010.

NTPC is awaiting environment clearance for the project from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The company's installed capacity is over 34,000 Mw and it plans to further ramp it up to 75,000 Mw 2017, from all sources of energy.

NTPC recently commisioned its first super-critical power project at Sipat in Chhattisgarh. The Sipat project has three units of 660 Mw in stage I and 2 units of 500 Mw in stage II, which are already operational.

The beneficiaries of the Sipat project are Western Region states of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Daman & Diu and Dadra Nagar Haveli.

Also construction work is in progress at 15 projects totalling 15,740 Mw capacity. NTPC is also pursuing other new projects beyond 12th Plan (2012-17) and the same are under various stages of planning, clearances and approvals.