By: K. M. DAYASHANKAR
The coal belt town of Ramagundam in Karimnagar district is all set to become the power hub of new Telangana State with several projects coming up in the region in near future.
The industrial town already houses 2,600 MW National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) which includes 62.5 MW APGenco’s Ramagundam thermal power station, 18 MW Singareni captive power project, 15.5 MW Kesoram cement factory and 10 MW NTPC solar power project.
Following the shortage of around 4,000 MW of power in Telangana and the Union Government mentioning about the establishment of a power project through NTPC in the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Bill, the authorities are confident of setting up more projects in Ramagundam due to availability of huge coal reserves, abundant water supply from Godavari and requisite manpower.
According to studies by Geological Survey of India, as much as 22,207 million tonnes of coal reserves exist in the Godavari valley spread across Karimnagar, Adilabad, Khammam and Warangal districts. The Singareni had so far extracted around 1,200 million tonnes of coal and has coal reserves sufficient for more than 400 years.
NTPC Ramagundam has planned to expand its power station by adding 660 MWX2 stations to produce additional 1,320 MW and also add 15 MW solar power. It has also planned to expand the APGenco’s Ramagundam thermal station from the existing 62.5 MW to 1,320 MW.
On the other hand, the BPL power plant in Ramagundam, which was expected to generate 2X500 MW power, was shelved following various reasons including high rate of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) etc.
Now, the NTPC Ramagundam and APGenco are in the race to take up the project on the same site to generate power in a phased manner. “If the NTPC takes up the project, the State government should make an agreement to ensure that the total power generated will be allotted to Telangana State only,” said BJP State spokesperson S. Kumar.
“The NTPC, so far, allocated 29 per cent of power generated to the State. As per the latest norms, the national power projects should allocate 50 per cent of power from its new projects to the State as they were utilising the local resources,” said official sources.
Courtesy: The Hindu