The Hindu : 1,000-MW plant coming up at Tuticorin

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 20, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

1,000-MW plant coming up at Tuticorin

By Our Special Correspondent

Photo: K. Pichumani

The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, and the Union Coal Minister, Karia Munda, exchanging MoU documents for setting up a 1000-MW thermal power project, an NLC-TNEB joint venture at Tuticorin, in Chennai on Thursday.

Chennai June 19. In a major initiative to provide improved, uninterrupted power supply for southern Tamil Nadu, the Neyveli Lignite Corporation and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board today signed an agreement for setting up a 1000-MW thermal plant at Tuticorin.

The Rs. 4,000-crore plant would become operational within four or five years and the power generated would go entirely to the Tamil Nadu grid. The NLC Chairman and Managing Director, S. Jayaraman, and the TNEB Chairman, K. Gnanadesikan, signed the memorandum of understanding for the joint venture at the Secretariat here, in the presence of the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, and the Union Coal Minister, Karia Munda.

Talking to the media after the signing ceremony, Mr. Munda said the project would be commissioned by 2007-2008. Proposals for other joint venture projects were also discussed with the Chief Minister.

Later, a State Government release said the capital investment for the project would be contributed in the ratio of 89:11 by the NLC and the TNEB respectively. And, as per the MoU, the infrastructure available in the Tuticorin thermal plant would be utilised for the new project. The joint venture initiative, as part of the Chief Minister's 15-point programme, would improve the power infrastructure and help to step up economic growth in the State, the release added.

This was the second joint venture thermal plant between a Central power generation undertaking and the TNEB, the release said.

In last July, the National Thermal Power Corporation and the TNEB signed an agreement for setting up a 1000-MW plant, at a cost of Rs. 5,000 crores, in north Chennai.

The State Electricity Minister, D. Jayakumar; the Chief Secretary (in-charge) N. Narayanan; the Energy Secretary, R. Rathinasamy, and the NLC directors, R. Narasimhan, J. N. Prasanna Kumar and R. N. Singh, took part in the signing ceremony. Sources in the TNEB said that given the limitations in tapping hydel power, coal-based thermal energy and nuclear power were the best options for the State, and the Government was trying to press ahead with these projects.

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