Central team arrives in Hyd to study mega power project plans

A four-member team, led by R K Jain, member of the Central Electricity Authority, arrived here on Tuesday to study the feasibility of setting up an ultra mega power project at the port town of Krishnapatnam.

According to Jain, the team already held preliminary discussions with Krishnapatnam port officials on the proposed location of the ultra mega power project and the facilities available there.

Addressing a press conference along with state power minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Jain said that once sanctioned by the Centre, the project would be given to a private developer to be selected through an international competitive bidding after completing the initial development by April 2007.

"The first unit of the project would be completed in four years and each of the remaining units would be put into operation within a gap of six months thereafter," he said, adding that the benchmark power cost at which the bids would be called for was decided at Rs 1.80 a unit.

The cost of the project could be about Rs 15,000 crore and would require about 2,000 acres land. It would be executed entirely under the private sector and the Andhra Pradesh government could have a stake in the project if it so wished. Of the total capacity, about 2,000 mw power is expected to be earmarked for the state's consumption, Jain said.

The minister said that Krishnapatnam port was capable of handling ships carrying up to 1.25 lakh tonnes of coal and ideally located to cater to the rapidly growing industrial power requirements of the surrounding areas. He clarified that the 1,600 mw super critical thermal project proposed by the state-owned APGenco at the Krishnapatnam port would be executed with a scope to raise its final capacity to 4,000 mega watt combining the total generation of 8,000 mw at Krishnapatnam alone.

Finance minister P Chidambaram had recently announced that the Centre would take four power projects of 4,000 mw each in Orissa, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.

It may be recalled that following Chidambaram's announcement of the Centre's plans to undertake four power projects of 4,000 mw each in Orissa, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sanction a similar project to Andhra Pradesh. In response to his request, the Centre had sent the four-member team.