BANGALORE: The bhoomi pooja for the thermal power plant at Kudigi in Bijapur will be held on June 2.
Announcing the NTPC project initiation ceremony in the state, Large and Medium Scale Industries Minister Murgesh Nirani said Union Minister for Power Sushil Kumar Shinde was expected to be present for the event.
In an interaction with Reporters Guild of Bangalore, Nirani shared the power plant would be able to generate 4,000 MW of power for the state and nearly 3,000 acres of land were acquired for the same. He added that out of the 4 lakh hectares of land in the state, agriculture lands spread over 2.5 lakh hectares while 1.23 lakh hectares were forest lands. “Industries provide 54 per cent of the state’s GDP by using 0.5 percent of the total land while agriculture uses 99 per cent of the land and generates 14 per cent of the revenue,” he said. According to him, the industries generated more revenue. Thus it needed more impetus for Karnataka’s progress.
On POSCO, he said the government had given options to the company. When questioned about the SC ruling of a CBI inquiry in the illegal mining case pertaining to B S Yeddyurappa, Nirani said, “They can conduct an investigation but I am sure that he (BSY) will emerge clean.”