PFC asks Odisha to pay Rs 47 crore for Sundergarh UMPP land

This, after Idco asked OIPL to submit Rs 145 crore as payment towards revised land costs

PFC has asked Odisha to pay Rs 47 crore as its share for the Sundergarh UMPP land cost. The state energy department has forwarded the request to Gridco Ltd for taking further action.

The request for payment came in January this year, less than a month after Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) asked OIPL to submit Rs 145 crore as payment towards revised land costs and processing fee for acquisition of 2,732 acre private land.

The maiden UMPP with a capacity of 4,000 Mw is coming up at Bhedabahal in Sundargarh district. The project requires 3,245 acres of land, out of which 444 acres belongs to government and 68 acres is forest land while the rest is private land.

The PFC subsidiary has submitted Rs 719 crore as part of land cost with Idco for payment of private land purchase. As Idco demanded additional amount in December 2013, the company had asked Odisha to submit its share by 15 January. The state government is yet to take any decision on the payment.

Since no developer has been selected for the project so far, PFC along with other nine states who are scheduled to get power from project are bearing the land cost at present.  

Once the developer is selected, the states would be reimbursed for their payment of land cost. The Request for Qualification (RFQ) for the UMPP was issued on September 25 last year. OIPL has received applications from nine prospective developers- Adani Power Ltd, CLP India Ltd, Jindal Power Ltd, JSW Energy Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T), National Hydro Power Corporation Ltd (NHPC), NTPC Ltd, Sterlite Infraventures Ltd and Tata Power Ltd for the UMPP.

The selection of bidder is being done as per the tariff based competitive bidding guidelines issued by the Central government on design, build, finance, own and transfer (DBFOT) basis.

Three coal blocks- Meenakshi, Meenakshi B and dip side of Meenakshi with combined deposits of 838 million tonne have been allocated for the UMPP. Presently, Central Mine Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI) is demarcating the coal blocks. Notification under Section 11 of Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition and Development) CBA Act has been issued for the Meenakshi coal block.