Coal news and updates

Hopes revive for the establishment of the 1,320 MW super critical plant

The hopes of getting a 1,320 MW Super Critical Thermal Power Plant for Farhatabad, 20 km from Kalaburagi, have been revived with positive signals from the Union government for the allotment of coal block, which had remained a major hurdle in the establishment of the plant on Design Build Finance Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) mode.

Sources told The Hindu here recently that the State government has decided to double the power production capacity of the proposed thermal power plant to 2,640 MW instead of the proposed 1,320 MW with the existing land and had expressed its willingness to increase the marginal additional land, water required for the increased capacity of the power plant.

In early 2011-12, the State government had completed all formality of acquiring 1,601 acres of land in and around Farhatabad by an incurring an expenditure of Rs. 158 crore. However, the project got stalled due to the non-allocation of the coal block.

The State government had originally sought a coal linkage of 6.3 MTPA for the 1,320 MW power station.

In the sixth meeting of the Technical Committee of the Union government the allotment of the coal block from Brahmanbil Coal Block was recommended for the Gulbarga Thermal Power Project, and the final order of the allotment is awaited.

Meanwhile, the State government has completed the process of giving principal approval to the allotment of 2.06 tmcft of water from a barrage in the Upper Krishna Project for the proposed project and also finalised the power evacuation arrangement from the project. The evacuation of power is proposed from 500/220 kV sub station and KPTCL has taken up the power system study now.

The Power Company of Karnataka Limited, a special purpose vehicle established by the State government for taking up such projects, which is in possession of land, has handed over 50 acres to KPTCL for establishment of a 400 kV station to facilitate power evacuation.

The sources said that while the Forest Department has given no objection certificate to the project, clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest will be obtained after the allocation of the coal linkage

Source: The Hindu