It was March 6, 1999, the day former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee laid the foundation stone of Jharkhand’s first super thermal power station, when the denizens of Chatra and Hazaribagh started dreaming about this project. The selected site was Tandwa which is in Chatra district, hardly 50 kms from Hazaribagh district headquarter and 100 kms away from Ranchi airport and railway station.
After crossing many hurdles, the final decision came on 20th February 2013, when the cabinet committee on investment finally gave its nod to the project. It is not just a photograph but it is a source of inspiration for us all, said GM North Karanpura Super Thermal Power Project Raghavendra Kumar Singh, showing a photograph kept on his office table having pictures of some denizens of Tandwa and adjoining villages sitting on Dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, demanding this project and handing over the memorandum to the then Union Energy Minister.
The denizens of this area have already done their job and it is now our duty to make their dreams come true, said GM Singh. The team of erection work specialists of BHEl is now working day and night to give a shape to the dream and our aim is to start power production here by the end of 2018. There will be three units of 660 MW here which will be the first one of Maharatna Company NTPC in the State of Jharkhand.
The NKSTPP will be the first power station in the country near a coal mine with environment friendly super critical technology. Coal for this plant will come from nearby Magadh project through 8 km long conveyor belt. The project is holistic in nature that power will be generated for 35 years as well as coal will also be extracted hence it encompasses the necessity of growth of economy in India, added GM Singh.
The project will be equipped with Air Cooled Condenser (ACC) to reduce the water requirement by 80 % compare to conventional method to protect the environment by least use of land and water. NTPC has already invested approximately ` 2200 Croreon this Project. `250 crores have already been deposited in Government treasury for the construction of Hazaribagh-Tandwa-Bijupada highway, a project of `441 crores, informed the officials.
DGM Vishwanath Chandan and Satyawan Gupta also gave a detailed information about the R&R activities of NKSTPP which are an indication that in the days to come the denizens and BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha who had dreamt this project will feel proud for playing an important role in making of such a developed and beautiful place of the State which is certainly going to illuminate the entire State by 2020.