Bhubaneswar: A new unit of Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS) will be set up soon, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said after a meeting with chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Gurdeep Singh Wednesday.
“For setting up a new unit of TTPS, I have discussed with NTPC chairman and next Monday, we will have a meeting with GRIDCO, NTPC, Energy department and other officers to discuss how the work for the new unit will be started soon,” Mahapatra said.
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The stakeholders will discuss the proposed unit of TTPS, grievances of local and a plan of action, he added.
The Chief Secretary made this statement following closure of the TTPS from Wednesday.
On other hand, all production units of the NTPC-owned thermal power station in Angul district have already been shutdown. Closure of the TTPS has created severe direct and indirect impacts on thousands of families and the district’s economy as well.
Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had earlier urged the Union Power Minister RK Singh to take necessary steps for an early execution of the Stage-III project of TTPS.
Patnaik had written a letter to Singh and stated that TTPS is one of the oldest thermal power stations in India which was set up by the State government. The Stage-I (240 MW) project was commissioned in 1968 and Stage-II (220 MW) in 1982. However, the NTPC acquired it in 1995.
In 2010 the NTPC proposed to expand the production capacity of the power station. It wanted to install two separate power production units of 660 MW capacities each, the CM’s letter read.
This situation prompted the State designated agency GRIDCO Limited, Bhubaneswar to sign a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the NTPC in December 2010 for the 660 MW units.
The TTPS Stage-III expansion project got approval of the State government in February 2020.
PNN
