Power utility Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) seems to have decided to shift its Koderma Phase II, super thermal 660X2 megawatt power project from Jharkhand to Raghunathpur in West Bengal’s Purulia district.
A DVC source confirmed to DNA: “Yes, we are shifting the project out of Koderma but it is due to the lack of availability of water and has nothing to do with the Jharkhand government.”
The source said that DVC was open to setting up more power plants in the mineral-rich state and that talks with the Jharkhand government were already on for implementing a new project in a location other than Koderma.
“We are keen to set up another project in Jharkhand under the 12th Plan though we have not zeroed in on the site. We will firm up the plans only after our 11th Plan projects are completed,” the source said, adding that the prospective project will be a supercritical power plant with capacity above 660 mw.
The second phase of the Koderma plant was to have come up on the existing site of the first phase plant where two units of 500 mw are coming up and are slated to be commissioned in September, 2010, and March, 2011, respectively.
The second phase, which was to be set up through collaboration with Bhel, had been sanctioned by the Union power ministry under DVC’s 12th Plan.
DVC had asked National Thermal Power Corporation to prepare a detailed project report for shifting the project from Koderma to Raghunathpur. The reportwill decide the next course of action.
For prospective power plants, things have not been too easy in Jharkhand. Apart from water scarcity, other players, speaking on condition of anonymity, feared that the Maoist threat could also prove to be a roadblock for the future as well.
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