Essar Power announces completion of 1,200 MW Mahan power plant project

Ruia family-promoted Essar Power Wednesday announced the completion of its Rs 80 billion capex programme for its Mahan power plant project with a commissioning of the plant's second 600 MW unit.

Both units of the project are operational and supported by an end-to-end raw material sourcing and evacuation infrastructure, a company statement said.

According to the statement, the second unit is supplied by Harbin Electric and is designed to perform at optimum efficiency with domestic coal from pithead mines in the region.

The project will provide direct employment to about 250 people, and indirect employment to around 1,250 more, thus spurring ancillary development in the area.

The company also announced the completion of railway siding for the project.

In the last one year, we have commissioned more than 1,500 MW of operational capacity and 465 km of transmission lines," said Pradeep Mittal, Executive Vice Chairman, Essar Power.

"Our focus has been on sweating our investment and meeting the growing demand for power in the nation, emerging as a significant player in the sector," Mittal added.

"The cancellation of the coal mine assigned to us severely affected the Mahan project. Though it led to project delays and cost overruns, we doubled our equity investment to Rs 33 billion to ensure the project is completed," Prashant Ruia, director, Essar Group.