India's First Private Mega Power Project Set to Go Commercial

India’s first mega-power project in the private sector is all set to go fully commercial by August 15th. This was stated today by Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State of Commerce and Power after visiting the 1000 Mw O.P. Jindal Super Thermal Power Plant at Tamnar near Raigarh in Chattisgarh being put up by Jindal Power Limited. The Rs 4300 crore power complex which has 4 units of 250 Mw each supplied by BHEL is already feeding over 800 Mw into the grid. Jindal Power Limited is now embarking on a massive expansion programme involving the addition of another 2500 Mw at Tamnar itself and an additional 2500 Mw in Dumka in Jharkhand. Shri Jairam Ramesh exhorted Shri Navin Jindal, the Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Jindal Power Limited to give the highest priority to procurement from BHEL or from other Indian private companies with indigenous manufacturing facilities in its expansion programme. Shri Jairam Ramesh complimented JPL for the excellent manner in which the plant has been designed and laid out and also the great care that has been taken to make it environmentally sustainable.

JPL has captive coal mines which is located at a distance of around 8 kms from the super thermal power plant and a conveyor tube has been set up for transportation of coal between coalmines and the power plant. The water requirement of the project is met by a dam, constructed across the river Kurket which is around 25km from the power plant. The time taken from the commercial operations of the four power units from zero date is 36 months which is a record in India. The Jindal Power Training Institute and the O.P. Jindal Institute of Technology have also been established near the super thermal power plant and after visiting the two institutes, Shri Jairam Ramesh said that he was confident that they would soon emerge as world-class centres of excellence. He said that private power companies should stop poaching on companies like NTPC and BHEL and begin to make investments in education, training and human resource development.

Shri Navin Jindal, MP said that JPL has already prepared a vision document for the company that envisages a capacity creation of 35,000 Mw in another twenty-five years time. He said that JPL was very keen on expanding into hydel power and nuclear power as well. JPL is prepared to enter into joint ventures with state governments or other PSUs to expand its hydel portfolio. He expressed hope that after the international nuclear agreement is finalised, market opportunities for Indian companies like JPL would open up so that India’s nuclear power generating capacity can expand significantly.

Source: Press Information Bureau
Date: July 27, 2008