NTPC will set up two 500-MW units under the first phase of its Mauda power project near here by 2012 at an investment of Rs 5,700 crore, the Nagpur District Guardian Minister, Mr Shivajirao Moghe, has said.
“The first unit will start power generation by March 2012, while the second unit will be functional by September.
The work on setting up two units of 500 MW each is on schedule and necessary land acquisition has been done within a record time without any resistance from farmers,” Mr Moghe told reporters here during a site visit.
He said the project would cost Rs 5,700 crore for the first phase (1,000 MW, with two 500-MW units) and Rs 8,500 crore for the second phase (1320 MW, with two 660-MW units).
The NTPC plant will get coal from public sector undertaking Western Coalfields Ltd and water from the Inter-District Irrigation project at Gosikhurd, he said.
Mr Praveen Darade, who demitted the office of District Collector and played a major role in land acquisition, said 18 km of pipeline out of 32 km has been laid for bringing water to the power plant.
Farmers have been paid Rs 10 lakh per hectare and a total of Rs 27 crore has been already disbursed till now, Mr Darade — also the Chairman of the Nagpur Improvement Trust — said.
About 624 families from 15 villages were affected by the project and their rehabilitation was the priority of the government, he added.
Mr Moghe said as part of its commitment, NTPC would sell 37 per cent of the total power generated to Maharashtra. As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, the company would be setting up a fully equipped hospital and a school also.
The Mauda power plant will be free of fly-ash. “It will be 99.95 per cent free of fly-ash since new technology has been procured for setting up the plant in Nagpur district,” he said.