Sasan project on track, says govt

The state government has said the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani’s Reliance Power Ltd-promoted ultra mega power project at Sasan in Singrouli district is on schedule. As told to the department of power, the final stage of land acquisition is in process, while civil and main plant work are likely to be started soon. The state has also handed over extension work of two units of 250 Mw each to Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.

Speaking to Business Standard, a senior official said, “The 4,000 Mw project is expected to generate power on the scheduled date of December 2012. The company is progressively working on land acquisition and related modalities and things are running smoothly.” The state will get 1,500 Mw power from the said project. Despite a rift over expansion of Sanjay Gandhi Thermal Power Project and Amarkantak Thermal Power Project with Bhel, the state government has handed over the Sarni expansion projects to it for approximately Rs 2,500 crore. “The Bhel is time-tested, though new players are coming in the field. They are also expanding to get more orders. If they do not work in time they will face stiff competition. We hope they will complete the work within the schedule,” said the official adding, “Works on the Sanjay Gandhi project and Amarkantak project were delayed but we hope it will not happen in case of Sarni.” The 1,300 Mw Sarni thermal power project is years old and needs renovation. With these two, 400 Mw Maheshwar hydel power project and a few other private power projects, the state is expecting to add another 5,000 Mw by 2013 against the expected demand of 9,000 Mw by then. “We will be able to meet the demand,” the official said. As of now the state is short of 1,500 Mw of the demand.