ADAG plans fresh mega power project in MP

Anil Ambani, boss of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), said at the Khajuraho investor summit on Saturday that he is scaling up his power generation capacity in Madhya Pradesh by 50 per cent from 8,000 MW to 12,500 MW.

The company already has two ultra mega power plants (UMPPs) in the state, at Sasan and Chittrangi. Ambani did not specify at which location the third will come up, or whether it will be a combination of capacities including that at at Rosa.

Given a benchmark price of Rs4 crore per mw, this would entail an outlay of around Rs50,000 crore.

ADAG would also require huge amounts of coal, for which it has been allocated mines as part of the Sasan deal. This allocation, however, is being challenged by Tata Power in the courts, and the Supreme Court has yet to pronounce a verdict on the issue.

Speaking at the investor summit, Ambani said the power plants would require around 25 million tonnes of coal every year, all of which would come from mines allocated to the group.

This would make him one of the biggest coal miners in the country.