OPGS Power Gujarat Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of UK-based OPG Power Ventures Plc, will commission its 300 MW coal-fired power plant on Saturday at Bhadreswar in Kutch district of Gujarat, managing director and chief executive officer Arvind Gupta said in a press conference on Thursday.
Work on the project, located in a special economic zone developed by the Adani group in Mundra, started three years ago and around 300 acre land was acquired from private owners in Kutch
The progress of the power plant and coal mine projects allocated to OPGC is satisfactory.
This has come to light in the State level Steering Committee Meeting held under Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra in secretariat conference hall today wherein Energy secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena presented the present status of the projects and outlined issues for discussion.
The progress of work NTPC and UMPP projects in Odisha was also reviewed in the meeting. Discussions in the meeting reveal that Manoharpur and Dip side Manoharpur, a contiguous coal block was allotted to OPGC for fuel connectivity to Unit-3 & Unit-4 2x660 MW supercritical units ( expansion units of OPGC).
The fuel supply to these power plants is totally dependent upon these coal blocks. On 23rd December, 2013 Ministry of Coal, after a review by IMG has asked for explanation to OPGC regarding slow progress in development of coal mines. Review reveal that Ministry has issued notice to 48 coal mines in various States which includes show cause to 27 and explanation for slow progress to 21 allottees. OPGC has been issued letter of explanation for slow progress.
Available data shows that in the meanwhile, all permits for setting up power plants have been secured and EPC contract has also been awarded. The work of power plant has commenced in work site. Regarding Manoharpur coal block, Stage-1 forest clearance has been secured. Land acquisition has been expedited with over 80% of Govt. land sanctioned in favour of the coal block and 77% of compensation amount disbursed for private land acquisition. It has been resolved in the meeting that land acquisition will be completed by end of Jnauary, 2014. Bidding process has been expedited. Request For Proposal ( RFP) has been issued to qualified bidders.
It has been decided in the meeting that contract award will be completed by February, 2014. Directorate of Geology and Steel & Mines department will expedite the process of drilling and work execution in Monaharpur dip side. Similarly, for MGR ( Mary Go Round) Stage-1 forest clearance has been secured. Over 50% of Govt. land has been sanctioned in favour of the project and processes of disbursement of compensation to private land owners have been expedited. Request for Proposal has been issued for EPC contract.
Replying to queries of media after the meeting Energy Secretary Sri Jena said that the progress of work for OPGC Power Plant expansion units and allotted coal blocks is almost ahead of the schedule. The work will be further expedited. Sri Jena added that we are waiting for mining approval form Government of India. Sri Jena has also said that we will comply with all the queries made by the Ministry within the prescribed time; and, we are confident that Ministry will be satisfied by the progress achieved till today.
The meeting also reviewed the progress of NTPC projects like Darliplai Super Thermal Power project, Dulanga coal mining project, Gajmara Super Thermal power Project and Talcher Super Thermal Power Station. The issues relating to Resettlement & Rehabilitation, land acquisition, disbursement of compensation, exemption of stamp duty on Govt. land compensation to patta holders under forest rights act, renewal of water allocation etc were discussed and finalized in the meeting.
The progress of 4000 MW Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP) in Odisha, a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Finance Corporation (PFC) was also figured in the meeting. The bottlenecks relating to private land acquisition, diversion of forest land, acquisition of land for Marry Go Round (MGR), Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant (POL), water corridors were discussed and necessary decisions were taken for removal of those bottlenecks.
Additional Chief Secretary Revenue & Disaster management Dr. Taradatt, Principal Secretary Forest & environment Sri Raj Kumar Sharma, Secretary Steel and Mines Gudey Srinivas, Secretary Energy Sri P.K.Jena along with senior officers from State Pollution Control Board, Forest Corporation, NTPC, OPGCL and PFC participated in deliberations.
Brief of the Project:
This had prompted the state government to seek tapering coal linkage to support the OPGC expansion plan.
Tapering linkage is the short-term linkage which is provided to those coal consumers who have been allocated captive coal blocks for meeting the coal requirements of their linked end use plants (EUPs), but are not able to synchronise the coal production from these blocks in line with the requirement of the EUPs.
B K Patnaik, the state Chief Secretary had urged Coal secretary Alok Perti in February for allocation of tapering coal linkage. However, the Coal ministry has said no further linkage can be offered for the OPGC expansion since coal blocks have already been allocated for the state utility.
According to Mr. Alok Perti, Hon’ble Coal Secretary:
“During the discussions of the Working Group report for the 12th Plan in the Steering Committee on Energy of the Planning Commission, Ministry of Power has indicated that during 12th Plan, only 38,000 MW capacity would be established through coal linkages. Since linkages amounting to 80,000 MW for 12th Plan already exist, there appears to be prime-facie no scope for awarding further linkages for 12th Plan projects, including the 1320 MW (2x660) Ib thermal power station (Phase-II) of OPGC.
It may be noted that OPGC's power plant was expected to achieve financial closure and begin construction towards the end of 2012. The status of the coal blocks allocated to OPGC-Manoharpur and dip side of Manoharpur, which were earlier categorized as 'No-Go' area were changed to 'Go' category in June last year. This has led to delay in achieving certain project milestones, particularly forest and environment clearances.
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