The Hindu Business Line : Centre resolves water row with Chhattisgarh

New Delhi, April 30 The Centre has hammered out a consensus with the Chhattisgarh Government to get the commissioning of NTPC’s Rs 12,000-crore Sipat project back on track. Following a meeting between the Minister of State for Power, Mr Jairam Ramesh, and the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Dr Raman Singh, in Raipur recently, a resolution was worked out on the contentious issues of allocation of water for the project and absorbing project oustees.

In the wake of the agreement, the Chhattisgarh Government has ordered release of water for the project from the Hasdeo Bango irrigation canal.

The decision would enable NTPC to resume production in the first 500 MW unit of the 2,980 MW power plant in the Bilaspur district, that was stopped in mid March after a brief trial run.

The State Government had earlier stopped the release of water from the canal for the project following a dispute with the power major over employment to those displaced by the coming up of the mega power project. During the meeting, Mr Ramesh assured Dr Singh that NTPC, which has already provided jobs to 117 unskilled persons from the area, would additionally provide training and offer a stipend to 383 people over three years, following which they would be absorbed in regular jobs in NTPC.

Thermal plant

The thermal plant, with three units of 660 MW each and two units of 500 MW each, is coming up on 4,300 acres and it will be the country’s first project to utilise the highly efficient super-critical boiler technology.

The Centre has also promised Chhattisgarh that it would look into its demands on greater allocation of electricity from the central generating stations. “It was in the best interest of all stakeholders that a middle path was worked out to ensure that the project goes on stream,” Mr Ramesh told Business Line.

He said that he has asked for two weeks to study the situation and ascertain Chhattisgarh’s claims for greater allocation of power. NTPC was originally scheduled to commission its first unit of 500 MW at Sipat in October, 2007, and a second unit in March.

However, the plans went awry as the Chhattisgarh Government decided to revoke water supply to the Sipat project on the grounds that the agreement to supply water was not in perpetuity and that it was unwilling to divert water from the Hasdeo Bango irrigation project. The State Government had, instead, suggested that NTPC could lay its own 50-km pipeline from the project site to the Mahanadi, rather than depending on the irrigation project, as its water availability declined over the years.

Besides, Chhattisgarh also maintained that it could provide water to the Sipat project from Hasdeo Bango only for two to three years and the NTPC should use the time to lay the pipeline from the Mahanadi.

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