Mumbai: The government has decided to set up three more ultra mega power projects, with 4,000 MW capacity each, in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Orissa, with the three state governments finalising sites for setting up the UMPPs.

The decision was taken at a meeting convened by the centre to decide on setting up five more UMPPs in the background of the progress made by the four mega power projects already under implementation, an official press release said.

None of the five chief ministers from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra turned up for the meeting convened by the union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to discuss expeditious implementation of UMPPs.

However, Tamil Nadu's power minister Arcot Veeraswamy gave a categorical assurance that the state government had approved Cheyyur in Kanchipuram district as the site for setting up of a 4,000 MW project.

Orissa also said it had finalised Bedabaha in Sundargarh district for setting up a  project while Maharasthra had finalised Munge in Sindudrug district for the purpose.

''It was decided that immediate action would be taken by all concerned towards early implementation of these projects, so that the overall benefit of 12,000 MW from these three projects could be brought on stream at the earliest possible," the official release said.

Substantial progress has been achieved at the three ultra mega power projects so far awarded - Mundra in Gujarat, Sasan in Madhya Pradesh & Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, it pointed out.

All the three UMPPs have made substantial progress and are expected to be commissioned ahead of schedule. It is likely that a few units aggregating about 3,000 MW are commissioned within the 11th Plan (2007-12) itself, it said.

Bids have been called for the fourth UMPP, being set up in Tilaiya in Jharkhand, and the selection of developer was expected to be completed by the end-2008. 
The government defines a UMPP as a power plant with an installed capacity of 4,000MW. Such a project would typically require an investment of Rs16,000 crore at current prices.

Despite the progress made at the three projects, of the 10 proposed UMPPs only four are on track.

Six other projects - in Cuddalore and Marakkanam in Tamil Nadu, Jharsuguda in Orissa, Girye in Maharashtra, Tadri in Karnataka and Akaltara in Chhattisgarh -  have been facing problems.