BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Tuesday directed the district collector of Angul to find a solution to the problems faced by NTPC in carrying out stage-III expansion of the Talcher Thermal Power Project by shifting the weekly market at Anand Bazar to a suitable place.
The national power major which is putting up a 1,320 MW pit head thermal power plant of two supercritical units of 660 MW each at Talcher in Angul district is not making desired progress due to some local issues.
The problems were discussed at a high-level meeting here chaired by Energy Minister Pratap Keshari Deb. The national thermal power major has sought the intervention of the state government to close the Jagannathpur-Anand Bazar road passing near the TTPS plant area and declare the entire plant area as a prohibited zone for the smooth execution of the project.
It has also requested the state to direct the Roads and Building division of the Works department for the timely completion of the rail over a bridge near the plant.NTPC officials informed the meeting that expenditure on the project till the end of June was about `600 crore as against the project cost of `11,843.75 crore. The possibility of cost overrun can not to ruled out if the progress continues to be sluggish.
The meeting also discussed about disposal and utilisation of the fly ash to be generated from the plant. The progress made in the identification of over 340 acre of degraded forest land for compensatory afforestation for its stage-II power project at Darlipali in Sundargarh district was also reviewed.
NTPC which is setting up another supercritical unit of an 800 MW coal-fired plant under its second phase expansion programme is facing a land hurdle as it requires over 170 acre of forest land for construction of the main plant, ash dyke and additional reservoir. The minister directed the district collectors of Angul and Sambalpur to sort out all problems faced by NTPC by October-end.