Tamil Nadu urged to speed up clearances for UMPP

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has asked the Tamil Nadu government to speed up the clearance process for the fifth ultra mega power project (UMPP)proposed at Cheyyur.

Speaking on the sidelines of Power Conference 2009, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, S Seshadri, member, CEA, said the Cheyyur project was slated to be operational during the XII Plan period (2012-17). This would be one of the eight projects to come up during the Plan period across the country.

The project was getting delayed since environment and tourism departments had raised some issues, he said.

Responding to this, PWC Davidar, secretary energy (additional charge) said the state government had called a meeting on October 8 to discuss the issue and the said land acquisition. “The issue will be resolved at the earliest and we are currently acquiring land for the 4,000 Mw project,” he said.

The state government is also planning to set up a similar project, he added.

Tamil Nadu has an installed capacity of 15100 Mw. To meet the net deficit, which is in the range of 400 Mw to 2,300 Mw, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has been procuring power directly from captive power generators to the tune of 400 Mw.