It is almost a year since former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa laid the foundation stone for the 1,600 MW Uppur supercritical thermal power plant, but the multi-crore project is stuck due to legal wrangles.
After Jayalalithaa laid the foundation stone and handed over the broiler turbine generator (BTG) contract to the public sector BHEL, the ₹12,772 crore project failed to take off following delay in issuing a notification under Section 3 (1) the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Lands for Industrial Purposes Act, 1997, for acquiring 768 acres of patta lands.
After the government finally issued the notification on March 24, the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) could not alienate the patta lands as a section of the landowners moved the Madras High Court and obtained a stay against land acquisition.
Just when Tangedco, the executing agency, began issuing notices to the 571 landowners asking them to hand over possession of the land to the district administration within a month, 134 landowners coming under the banner of ‘Anaithu Vivasayigal Sangam’ moved the court recently and obtained the stay, sources said.
Tangedco, which is in possession of 229.59 acres of government land, proposes to alienate 767.83 acres of private patta lands for the project.
After the award of the ₹5,580 crore contract, BHEL could not proceed further for want of lands.
