NTPC Ltd., India's fastest growing power corporation has announced that it is going to invest a sum of Rs. 40,000 crores for setting up 3 'Coal-sourced' thermal power plants in the Madhya Pradesh state. The three sites chosen for this project are Bamitha, Gadarwara and Khargone. Combining the figures of the capacity of each will result in a large sum of 7960 MW. The average cost for the generation of a unit megawatt of power comes out to be Rs. 5 crore. It is of course clear that installing this project will prove very helpful as it will cut short the power crisis problems of the state and the nation. The other aspects of the project viz. the Environmental consequences, availability of raw material (coal and water), Land use plan etc. will come out after a survey which is at present on the move and is expected to end after 6 months with a complete report on the same. Chairman and Chief Managing director of NTPC, Mr. R.S. Sharma said after a conference with the power ministers, "It won't take more than a year to get started with the project. We are waiting for the studies to show their results which are to come after 6 months."
The three sites where the power units are to be set up are estimated be of the following capacities: -
Bamitha - 4000 MW
Gadarwara - 2640 MW
Khargone - 1320 MW
Since about 5 million tonnes of coal per annum is required for the generation of 1000 megawatt power, therefore the total coal requirement will be approximately 40 million tonnes. Sources say that NTPC has written to the power ministry in the regard of tying coal linkages. The power ministry is to raise the issue to coal ministry so that linkages can be established for the three projects. However, power generation through these projects will be starting not before half of this decade. NTPC targets to achieve 50,000 MW of production by 2012 increasing the current production by 19,000 MW. If NTPC achieves this feat, then it will be another feather in its bushy cap!
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