UMPP projects may be stalled due to land acquisition problems
07 Jan 2010
Land acquisition problems may trip future ultra mega power plants (UMPPS) after the current nine 4,000 MW-capacity projects have been implemented according to a Business Standard report.
The government has so far allotted four of the nine project originally conceived and in 2008 power minister Sushilkumar Shinde announced an additional nine bringing the total number of UMPPS to 13.
According to a source in the power ministry the report quotes, the additional four seem to be a difficult proposition and the government may have to do a rethink about them.
The power ministry announced setting up of the high capacity projects to reduce the electricity deficit in the country. India currently generates 1,50,000 MW, which falls 14 per cent short of demand.
Four such power projects at Sasan (MP), Krishnapatnam (AP), Mundra (Gujarat) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) have been awarded by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC), of which Reliance Power has bagged three, barring Mundra UMPP in Gujarat which is being developed by Tata Power.
The sites for the other five UMPPS have not yet been decided.
PFC is the nodal agency appointed by the government of these projects.
The four additional UMPPs were planned to come up in the states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.