Tripartite agreement for Himachal EMTA Thermal plant signed

By: Ravinder Makhaik

Shimla: A tripartite agreement between HP Power Corporation Ltd, Eastern Mineral and Trading Agency (EMTA) and Himachal EMTA Power Ltd for setting up a 500 MW pithead thermal power plant in Bengal was signed on Friday.

This agreement supersedes an earlier agreement that was signed in May 2007. The new agreement envisages lesser investment on behalf of the joint venture partners as capital investment both for mining operation and setting up of the power plant would be made by the prospective bidders to be selected through open tendering process.

The proposed thermal plant with the equal equity participation between HPPCL and EMTA is to be developed at Raniganj (West Bengal) where joint allocation of Gourangdih ABC non-coking coal block has been made in favour of HEPL and M/s JSW Steel limited on equal sharing basis for meeting coal requirement. For the mining operation of the coal block another agreement has been signed between HEPL and JSW Steel Limited.

The agreement envisages 250MW power shall be available to Himachal throughout the year at bus bar cost. This would particularly help in meeting the power demand during the shortage of power during harsh winter months when hydel generation dips down to one-fifth to one-sixth of its installed capacity due to lean discharge of the snow fed streams and rivers

This power plant at 80% PLF is likely to generate 3504 million units annually. The estimated capital cost of the project is around Rs 2345 Crore on the basis of the DPR prepared by Fichtner Consulting Engineers (India) Private Limited during March, 2007. The cost of generation works out to be a little less than Rs 2 per unit in the first year of completion. The power station site is on the bank of the Damodar River and Coal mine is within a radius of about 30 km. This power station is planned to be completed in four years time.

The power generated from the power station would be injected into the West Bengal State Grid and PGCIL Grid at Kanyapur and Maithon respectively through 220 KV two single circuit and one double circuit transmission lines.

The joint venture agreement was signed by Tarun Kapoor, Managing Director, HPPCL, and by Ujjal Kumar Upadhaya, Managing Partner of EMTA and by Biswanath Dutta, Director, HEPL in presence of chief secretary Asha Swaroop.