The Darlipali Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is on the verge of securing the necessary Forest and Environment Clearances.
NTPC CMD Dr Arup Roy Choudhury informed the media here on Thursday that the road for seeking the investment approval for the 1,600-Megawatt project in Sundargarh district would be clear once the approvals are in hand.
“The plan for a medical college there will be included in the investment proposal and work on it can start only after getting that approval,” he said.
Choudhury also expressed confidence about the Gajamara STPP in Dhenkanal, but sources in the NTPC under conditions of anonymity pointed out that the process of land acquisition there would get time-barred if not concluded by August 8 this year due to inordinate delay in the process of land acquisition by the State Government. If that happens, it would be the second time that the land acquisition activity would face such a situation.
Choudhury clarified that the amount spent on CSR activity by the NTPC was 0.5 per cent of its profit last year and would be 1 per cent this year. He brushed aside a suggestion of hiking it to 2.5 per cent with the observation that no such mandate exists and examples of other PSUs with much smaller profits are not relevant to the NTPC.
He said the NTPC exceeded the capacity addition target for the 11th Plan and would do so in the 12th Plan too.
“The NTPC has added more than 4,100 MW in the first year of the current plan, which is a record in the industry,” he said, and disclosed of a massive CAPEX programme which included Rs 20,000 crore last year and the same amount this year too. Choudhury said that in five years from now, the NTPC would be mining 100 MT of coal from the five existing mines and the four in the pipeline. But he cautioned that the requirement by that time would go up to 240 MT, and so, the Coal India imports would continue to influence the performance of the NTPC well into the future.
The Regional Executive Director in charge of Eastern Region II gave a brief description of the growth plans of the region.
Others present in the meeting included Director of Human Resources UP Pani and General Manager, Human Resources MSD BhattaMishra.