Akarimota power plant to start this year

The 250-megawatt Akarimota power project, an ambitious undertaking of the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC), will start operating in the next few months, said minister of state for energy and petrochemicals Saurabh Dalal.

He said this while speaking at a meeting at the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry to discuss power reforms in the state.

Dalal said with the Akarimota power plant becoming functional, the power crisis in the state will be eased to a large extent.

"The Akarimota power plant will begin functioning this year," Dalal said.

The second and third units of the lignite-based power plant will start about three or four months after the first unit goes on stream.

The plant is coming up at Chher in Kutch district, close to lignite reserves that GMDC has been mining for the past few decades.

GMDC officials had said at the company's annual general meeting last September that loans worth Rs 1,116 crore from various banks and financial institutions have already been sanctioned and GMDC has been getting required funds for the project.

Turbines and generators have been put into place already and the reverse osmosis plant (ROP) for filtration of sea water has already become operational.

The first unit of the power plant will generate 125 MW of power and officials said close to 70 per cent work on this unit is already complete.

As far as the second and third units of the power plant is concerned, 50 per cent of the work is complete, officials said last week.

Based on the CFBC technology, the power station's equipment is being supplied by Alstom, Germany and Ansaldo, Italy.

The minister had on another function a couple of days back, said electricity charges in the state would come down in the future.