NHPC to develop 3 hydro projects in Orissa

Business Standard, March 26, 2010
The National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) plans to set up three hydro power projects in Orissa with an aggregate generation capacity of 300 Mw.


These projects will be developed in joint venture (JV) with the Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC). Meanwhile, NHPC has sent a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) to the Orissa government for approval, sources said.

The three projects, namely Sindol-1, Sindol-II and Sindol-III, would be developed by NHPC in the first phase on a pilot basis. All these projects are located on river Mahanadi. Sindol-1, at Deogaon in Sambalpur district, will have a capacity of 90 Mw. Similarly, the installed capacity of Sindol-II, located at Kapasira in Sonepur district, will also be 90 Mw. The largest among the three, Sindol-III, located at Godhaneswar in Sonepur district, will have a generation capacity of 120 Mw. NHPC will have 51 percent stake in the joint venture company and the remaining 49 percent will be held by OHPC.

Sources said, NHPC has in principle agreed to provide 100 percent power to be generated from these units to the state grid. However, it is awaiting the final nod of the Union ministry of power in this regard. Though OHPC earlier proposed to develop these units on its own, the government has changed its mind in favour of a joint venture with NHPC.

“The draft MoU has been sent to the law department for vetting. After that the draft would be sent to NHPC for approval by its board”, said an official associated with the process.

It may be noted, the government planned to develop about nine hydro-electric projects in the JV mode, out of which three projects would be set up in the first stage. The identified projects are Middle Kolab Hydro-Electric Project, Tel Integrated Project, Lower Vansadhara Project, Balijori Hydro-Electric Project, Khadago Project, Salki Hydro-Electric Project, Uttei and Roul Integrated Project, Mahanadi-Brahmani river link and Baramul Hydro-Electric project.