Odisha okays site change for Tata Power's 2,000 Mw plant

Projects of JSW Steel, JGreen referred to HLCA

The State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) has approved the change in project site of Tata Power’s 2,000 Mw coal-fired plant to Begunia in Khurda district.

Tata Power had originally proposed to set up the plant at Naraj-Marthapur near Cuttack but was forced to change the location on environmental concerns since the selected site was in the vicinity of the Chandaka-Dampara wildlife sanctuary.

The new site, which is split into two plots and adds up to 975 acres, consists of government and Jagannath Temple land having cashew plantations and some private non-irrigated land in Begunia tehsil.

“The advantage of the proposed site is that there is no forest land and no wildlife sanctuary and elephant corridor within the 10 km range”, Tata Power had said in a recent letter to the state government.

Simultaneously, the SLSWCA referred the projects proposed by Sajjan Jindal controlled JSW Steel and an LNG (liquefied natural gas) based power plant to the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA).

JSW Steel has lined up an investment of Rs 50,000 crore for setting up a 10 million tonne steel mill at an undecided location in Kendrapara district. The plant capacity will be three million tonne per annum in the first phase. The company has intended to locate the steel project close to a port since that would ease exports of finished steel products.

Similarly, JGreen has offered to set up a 423 Mw power plant, the first ever natural gas based power project in the state, at an investment of Rs 3,106 crore near Dhamra port, banking on gas supplies from the five million tonne LNG terminal proposed planned there by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL). The power project will use Japanese technology and needs barely 37 acres of land.

The SLSWCA also cleared two logistic parks proposed by Container Corporation of India (Concor) at Paradeep and Muniguda. While the Paradeep logistic park will cost Rs 113 crore. Concor is investing Rs 123 crore on the Muniguda project.

Concor, a mini-ratna Central PSU has evinced interest to establish multi-modal logistic parks (MMLPs) at five industrially vibrant locations- Jharsuguda, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road, Paradeep, Muniguda and Angul.

The MMLP at Jharsuguda needs 28.31 acres of land and is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2015.

The MMLP at Paradeep has been proposed near Siju station on the Paradeep-Haridaspur rail line under East Coast Railway’s (ECoR) jurisdiction. The park is coming up on 60 acres of land owned by Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). Rail India Technical and Economic Services (Rites), the engineering and consultancy arm of Indian Railways, has been engaged to prepare the techno-economic feasibility study for the project. Major industries like Posco, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative Ltd (Iffco), Essar Steel and Paradeep Phosphates Ltd (PPL) are expected to be beneficiaries of the Paradeep MMLP.