IPPs asked to shift venue

Paucity of land and water along with other infrastructural problems have forced the Orissa government to ask 18 proposed IPPs to shift venues of their projects slotted in their original proposals envisaging combined generation capacity of over 30,000 MWs at an investment of around Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

Those told to shift venues include big names like Larsen and Toubro, Jindal Steel and Power, Neyvelli Lignite Corporation, IL&FS, Sahara Power, Jain Energy, Era Power, Lanco Babandh Power, Jindal India Thermal, BGR Energy and even the 4000 MWs UMPP SPV Orissa Integrated Power Limited ( OIPL).

The proposal for shifting of project venues finds mention in the latest recommendations of the state task force on power. The expert power body also decided that no fresh proposal will be accepted from any IPP requesting the state to allow it to set up a unit at Angul or Dhenkanal. The government is shortly expected to initiate discussions with these IPPs on their plans for shifting venues.

Of late, most IPPs have chosen Angul and Dhenkanal as venues for strategic reasons as these two places are close to the Ib and Talcher fields of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited ( MCL). IPPs with other venues have also been told to shift because of some impending local infrastructure problems.

The IPPs who have been told to shift venues include few from the list fo 13 companies with whom the state had signed MoUs in 2006.

The others are fresh proposals.

Latest figures show that the state has received 8 fresh proposals adding up to the existing 13 MoU signed projects which take the proposed aggregate generation capacity to 59,000 MWs at an investment of around Rs 2.54 lakh crore.

Nine of the 13 IPPs with whom MoUs were signed have their locations in Angul and Dhenkanal and the remaining four in Jharsuguda and Cuttack.

The biggest hurdle coming in the way of these projects is finding out lands for IPPs who want to set up units in Angul and Dhenkanal.

The IPPs have been told that it was not possible for the state to find out land for them as there was a gradual shrinkage of land in these districts.

Says a highly placed state energy department official, “if everybody wants land in Dhenkanal and Angul, it will become virtually impossible for us to accommodate them. Exceptions might be there but that cannot become the rule".

IPPs proposing to set up plants in Orissa are currently in the grip of non-availability of coal linkage. Some are confronting problems of partial allotments of coal blocks.

The IPPs had their venues in Dhenkanal, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Athamallik, Astaranga, Angul, Gondia, Talcher, Sundargarh and Kamakhyanagar. They mostly intended to draw water from the Mahanadi and Brahmani rivers and also Ib and Devi. Orissa proposes to generate 16,000 MWs of power by the end of the 11th and beginning of 12th Plan.