The prestigious solar park that was to be set up in Mahabubnagar district by the Central government is most likely to be shifted to Adilabad as the government could not find suitable land for setting up such park.
During his visit to Adilabad on Thursday, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao may inspect the land identified for the same.
The project, worth 1,000 MW capacity, was initially sought to be set up in Gattu mandal of Mahabubnagar district. Towards the same, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed among the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), APIIC and the New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NREDCAP) in February this year.
The park was to be built on plug and play model which would make it easier for the solar developers to set up plants in short duration of three to six months. However, it ran into an unforeseen hurdle recently, when the land shown by the APIIC (now TSIIC) was discovered as assigned land, the officials informed.
A total 5,800 acres of land in Gattu was identified in one chunk earlier, which would have sufficed the project. But to its embarrassment, the Central team, which visited the mandal along with prospective entrepreneurs, including NTPC Ltd. and NHPC delegates, found that it was assigned land.
The sources said that the government is not willing to acquire the land by paying compensation to the assignees, as it would result in huge financial burden. Instead, officials went in search of alternative locations, and found 1,000 acres of government land in Indravelli mandal of Adilabad district.
The land would be enough only for 200 MW, considering that each MW of solar power installations requires five acres of land. The government is reportedly mulling over spreading the intended capacity over different places in the district.
