Rs 5,961 cr JITPL power project in uncertainty

The difficulty in land acquisition is going to seriously affect the industrial sentiment in Orissa. Though the government boasts of attracting investments worth over Rs 6 lakh crore, many projects including those proposed by Posco, Arcelor-Mittal, Tata Steel are hanging in balance due to stiff resistance by the locals.

Peeved by the apathetic attitude of the administration in resolving issues related to land acquisition and inordinate delay in starting the project work, some industries are contemplating to shelve their ventures in the state.

One such project, which may see a premature end to its initiative, is the 1200 Mw power plant proposed by the Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd (JITPL) at Derang near Talcher. The project was estimated to cost Rs 5961 crore.

Though the company has not taken any final decision pertaining to the shelving of the project yet, the top management of the company is having a marathon meeting in New Delhi today to have a final view in this regard.

It follows the failure of the recent meeting of the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) at Angul to take a decision on the compensation to the land losers. The company was looking forward to this meeting to break the deadlock. Instead of taking final decision on rate of land and other demands of the land losers, the RPDAC had constituted a sub-committee to look into the issues. The company feels this as a time consuming measure when it was ready to implement the project on a fast track basis.

Frustrated at the delay in taking possession of the land and unable to make the desired progress for last five months, the company is now seriously re-considering its Orissa plans.

“There are some problems pertaining to the land acquisition and we are trying to sort out the problem through the state government. If the situation persists, the company may take any decision on the Orissa project”, a company official told Business Standard. However, the company has not communicated anything pertaining to the matter to the state government yet. “JITPL has not communicated anything suggesting shelving of the power project in Orissa”, a senior official of the energy department said.

Sources said, the company paid the highest rate in Angul district for acquisition of land at RS 7.5 lakh per acre. The negotiated rate was paid by the company for smooth acquisition of land, but the demand from the people later increased to Rs 15 lakh per acre, besides other facilities like compensation in lieu of jobs.

The company, meanwhile, has placed orders for equipments and machineries worth Rs 2600 crore with the BHEL. Besides, it has already invested about Rs 150 crore on land acquisition. Importantly, the JITPL was one among the few Independent Power Producers (IPPS) which had made substantial progress on the ground.

Apart from getting the long term coal linkage for 600 Mw from the Union ministry of coal, the company was allotted Mandakini coal block jointly with two others. While it has received water commitment for 40 cusecs of water from the state water resources department, rail traffic clearance has also been obtained. The first unit of the project was targeted to be commissioned in September 2011.