With the completion of over 80 per cent work, the first unit of NTPC-Kudgi thermal plan is just 11 months away from generating electricity.
“We are scheduled to start generating 800MW of total 4000MW of power from March next year, while in June we would start supplying the electricity. “I must say that despite some delay in the project owing to agitation by farmers against the plant, we have covered the gap and are working as per the schedule,” said Balaji Ayengar, Group General Manager of the plant.
Addressing presspersons at the plant site here on Friday, he said that the work was in full swing to meet the deadline as testing of turbines and boilers, which are critical components of the plant, was in the last phase.
Informing that each 800MW unit would be commissioned within a gap of six months each from the operation of the first unit in March next year, Mr. Ayengar said that over 4 million tonnes of coal was needed for each plant annually.
To a question, he said that the work of laying of pipelines for drawing water from Almatti dam was also going on at a fast pace as the entire project needs about 5.2 tmc of water.
Regarding doubling of railway line from Hotagi junction of Maharashtra to Kudgi plant for supplying coal, Mr. Ayengar said that the NTPC has paid Rs. 956 crore to Ministry of Railways for laying the line. Konkan Railway and South Western Railway were laying the line, which is expected to complete by mid-2017.
“Till then, we would be using the present single line to carrying the coal from mines in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The blocks are reserved for the Kudgi plant, thus, we will not face any shortage of coal,” he said.
He informed that the NTPC has 40 plants across the country with a combined electricity generation capacity of 44,598MW.
With an objective of enhancing the quality of service and equipments used in NTPC plant, the Corporation, for the first time, has introduced vendor enlistment scheme.
Elaborating on the scheme, Balaji Ayengar, Group General Manager of Kudgi plant, said that under the new scheme, any company or agency can now supply equipment or service to any NTPC plant of the country. Earlier, the agencies or service providers did not have this option, thus NTPC had to take the service of only locally available companies.
“After the new initiative, while the NTPC would get competitive agencies, even the suppliers will have wider access to customers across the nation. This is like a win-win situation for both parties,” he said. He said that for any details of the new initiative, one could log onto www.vendor.ntpc.co.in.
