R-Power gets 1,800 acres for Andhra project

Reliance Power, an Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group (ADAG) company, has got possession of 1,800-acre land required for its power plant in Krishnapattnam. The land will be sufficient to begin work for the main plant and related facilities, and a further 700-acre land for residential and ash ponds will be acquired soon.

The land was acquired by the Andhra Pradesh government and handed over to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) created for Coastal Andhra Power (CAPL), said a source.

The SPVs are created by the central government to facilitate faster implementation of Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP), each with a capacity of 4,000 MW. These SPVs, which will get government and regulatory approvals, are transferred to companies after they won the bidding. Thus, CAPL is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Power.

The acquisition is in sharp contrast to the problems faced by the Tata Group at Singur. Tata Motors have stopped work at the plant because of protest against the land acquisition.