Sahara Power to build 200 mw power plant in Odisha; scraps 1320 mw plan

Sahara India Power is keen to develop a 200 mw solar and wind power plant in Odisha’a Bolangir district. The company had initially planned to set a 1320 mw thermal power plant at the site.

The solar park will come up over 990 acres of land.

“Sahara India Power Corporation has plans to develop Solar and Wind Power Plant of the capacity of 200 mw which will be developed in 1 to 4 phases with the investment of Rs 10 billion at Titlaghar, Bolangir district, Odisha”, said the company in an email.

Thermal power plant earlier proposed at the site is not viable, hence, we have suspended the plan, the company further stated.

“In the first phase, Sahara Power is keen to develop 50 mw and the balance capacity of the proposed 200 mw will be set up subsequently. However, we have no idea whether a site allocated for a different purpose can be used for developing the solar park”, said a government official.

However, the company has requisite amount of land to develop a solar park. They have only come up with the idea, but no proposal has been submitted yet in this regard, he added.

Sahara India Power had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Odisha government on February 7, 2009 and also a supplementary MoU on April 9, 2010 for change of site to Titilagarh tehsil since the original site was not found to be suitable.

The pact was for setting up of two 660 mw super critical units at a cost of Rs 9,000 crore.

Out of 991 acres of land required for the development of the 1320 mw project, the company has been allotted 74 acres and 392 acres of government and private land respectively by the state nodal land acquisition agency.