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Kerala banks on NaMo effect to revive coal-based power unit

Kerala may have turned its back on the BJP, but the state’s power sector is banking on NaMo effect to see if an ambitious but delay-hit coal-based power project can be revived.

The Power Department is hoping that the “new situation’’ at the Centre will help Kerala obtain coal from Orissa for establishing a coal-based power plant in Cheemeni, Kasaragod, Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed said on Tuesday.

This project was originally conceived by the KSEB as a 2400 MW coal-based thermal power project but was later converted into an LNG-based one owing to uncertainty over the availability of coal from Orissa.

 “We are now thinking of a 1000-MW coal-based plant at Cheemeni. Let’s see if the new situation can bring us coal,” Aryadan said.

What gives the department hope is that Gujarat is one of Kerala’s two partners for mining coal from the Baitarni Coal Block in Orissa. “If we can get coal, we’ll go in for coal. Otherwise we will stick with LNG,” he said.

It was the previous LDF Government that decided to establish a 2400-MW power project at Cheemeni in Kasaragod using coal mined from  Baitarni.

State PSUs Orissa Hydro Power Corporation Ltd, Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd and the KSEB were jointly allotted the 602 MT Baitarni West Coal Block in the Talcher Coal Fields of Orissa.

 The allottees also formed a JV, Baitarni West Coal Company Ltd.

However, the mining of coal was delayed and the Union Coal Ministry withdrew the allocation.

Source: The New Indian Express