Assam plans 1,600 MW thermal power plant

The Assam government is planning to set up a 1,600 MW mega-thermal power plant at Margherita in Tinsukia district. The government has decided to “engage” National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to prepare the detailed project report (DPR) for the proposed plant.

In this regard, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had a meeting with Coal India Limited (CIL), NTPC and Assam Power Generation Company Limited (AEGCL) at his office on Thursday to discuss and “assess the modalities” to set up the project.

The mega-power project would be set up at a 2,000 bigha land at Marghertia, which is in Upper Assam. Coal India Limited would provide coal linkage to the project from Northeastern coalfields.

However, it is unclear if the government would award NTPC the project for implementation after completion of the DPR.

Way back in 2008, a similar kind of project was conceptualised, though of a lesser size, but nothing materialised finally. The then Congress government had blamed lack of coal linkages and inefficiency of CIL in ramping up production for the project’s silent demise.

The 2008 project was of 250 MW size and was to be developed jointly by North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) and Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB). The proposal was also to add another 250 MW unit in later years.

For the current one, Sonowal asked the NTPC to prepare the DPR and submit it to the government as early as possible so that works on the project could take off soon. The 1,600 MW power project will have two units with an installed capacity of 800 MW each.

The average daily demand of power in Assam is around 1,450 MW, of which only just around 200-250 MW comes from Assam government owned projects.

Since undertaking reforms in the power sector, which begun with unbundling of ASEB into five corporations in 2004, more than Rs 2,000 crore has been invested for capacity augmentation and infrastructure upgradation of the state’s power sector.