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The 1,200-MW thermal power plant of Coastal Energen, which is coming up at the southern coastal town of Tuticorin, is 95 per cent complete, but the good news ends there.
Tamil Nadu’s largest independent power producer will have to wait to start generating electricity, as there is confusion about how to bring coal from the Tuticorin port to the plant, which is 18 km away.
When the ₹4,500-crore project was conceived, the idea was to have the Railways lay a line connecting the port to the plant. This did not happen for two reasons.
First, the Railways, busy with other projects, accorded less priority to this small job. Second, it is the job of the project promoters to secure the ‘right of way’ (the legal right) for the Railways to lay the line.
The promoters — the family of BS Abdur Rahman, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the Dubai-based ETA group — have not been able to secure the ‘right of way’.
Other options such as trucking in coal, long-distance conveying and slurry pipeline have all been examined and dismissed as infeasible.
Another plan under consideration is setting up a jetty in the sea at the nearest coast to the project, which is 1 km away. But this is also a long-drawn process, both technically and regulation-wise.
Any industrial activity in the environmentally-fragile, protected, Gulf of Mannar is fraught with challenges.
Whether getting coal in ships, shifting the coal on to barges mid-sea and bringing the barges to the jetty would damage the environment.
Getting necessary approvals itself would be a time-consuming task, sources say.
Coastal Energen has committed to supplying power from one of its two units (600 MW) to Tamil Nadu’s electricity generation and distribution utility, Tangedco, from mid next year.
This mandate was won in a Tangedco tender for purchase of power for 15 years (at ₹4.91 a kWh).
If the plant does not begin generating electricity by then, it would aggravate power shortage in the State.
E-mails sent to the company seeking its response remained unanswered.
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