Old projects with new announcement

There was good news for Maharashtra when Union Power Minister Shushil Kumar Shinde proposed two mega power projects in the state.

However, the bad news is that the projects announced by Shinde - 1000 Mw at Maudha and 1320 Mw at Solapur - aren't really new.

Shinde announced in the Parliament on Friday that both these projects would improve the power crunch in the state.

The fact is that both projects are stuck due to local opposition. An energy expert said, "These projects were stuck due to land issues. Moreover, the government was giving a relief and rehabilitation package of just Rs 3-lakh to the people affected by the project, which further created opposition."

As many as 25000 Mw of power generation is stalled, thanks to agitation from locals, while the total installed capacity in the state is just over 15200 Mw, while the actual distribution is close to 10000 Mw.

Sunil Tatkare, state power minister said, "We are handling the issues of farmers affected by these projects by giving them better reimbursement."

Meanwhile, NTPC is having a stone foundation at Maudha in Nagpur on February 22. A spokesperson from NTPC said, "Now all the issues have been sorted out and necessary clearances been taken for this (500 Mw x
2) power plant."

Recently, chief secretary Johny Joseph had said that land acquisition had become a problem due to the high realty prices.