With the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre expected to provide coal linkage to various power projects, the State is planning to set up two new thermal power plants to address the increasing demand for power in the coming years.
Disclosing this to presspersons on Tuesday on the sidelines of a programme here to sign agreements for buying 892 MW of power from the Kudankulam nuclear power plant and the Damodar Valley Corporation of India, Minister fro Energy D.K. Shivakumar said the government was trying to identify land to set up the proposed power plants.
“We have a list of land available in various regions from the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board. We are looking at feasibility in terms of availability of both water and land,” he said.
He said that the Union government had given a positive assurance to the State on providing coal linkage, if the latter submitted the proposal on the thermal power plants.
“We are trying to use this opportunity to set up the new power plants to increase the State’s installed power capacity,” he said.
He said in addition to allotting a coal block in Odisha for the proposed 1,320 MW thermal power project in Gulbarga, the Union government had advised the State to take up Phase II of the project. However, there was a shortage of about 300 acres for Phase II of the project. The State would acquire the required land, he said.
The Minister said that the Union government had directed Coal India to allot coal on preferential basis for the third generating unit of the Bellary Thermal Power Station with a capacity of 800 MW.
The Ministry of Power has also recommended to the Coal Ministry that coal linkage be provided for the second generating unit at the Yermarus thermal power plant. With this, both these plants would be set up within the deadline, he noted.
