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Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention for early initiation of the bidding process and quick implementation of the proposed Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) at Bedabahal in Sundargarh district of Odisha.

Expressing concern over the delay, Mr. Patnaik said the UMPP was supposed to be taken up on a fast-track mode for which Odisha as the host State has already contributed nearly Rs.350 crore as sought by the project proponents.

“However, the progress for the development of UMPP is rather slow even when all the requisite support is being provided by the State government,” Mr. Patnaik said in his letter to Mr. Modi. “I am informed that the preparation and finalisation of standard bidding document (SBD) is taking a lot of time. Further, as the host State we have already submitted our views and concerns relating to the SBD which, I hope, have been duly addressed,” he noted.

Mr. Patnaik said that the Central government had initiated the process of setting up the UMPP at Bedabahal which is supposed to generate 4000 mW of power. The UMPP is structured to be developed through two SPVs – Odisha Integrated Power Limited (OIPL) and Odisha Infra Power Ltd. (OINPL), which are subsidiaries of Power Finance Corporation Ltd. (PFCL), New Delhi.

Mentioning about the joint initiative of State government and the Centre of providing 24X7 power for all, Mr. Patnaik said that generation of power would also need to be increased commensurately to achieve this objective. He requested the Prime Minister to issue suitable instructions to the authorities concerned for early initiation of the bidding process and implementation of the power project.

Source: The Hindu