By IANS
Jaipur : A 1,000 megawatt power plant at an estimated cost of Rs 46 billion will soon come up in Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's home district of Jhalawar to augment power generation in the state.
The state government would provide Rs.9.2 billion for the Kalisindh power project while rest of the corpus would come from Power Finance Corporation and commercial loans, Chairman of state's electricity board Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam (RVUN) N.S. Choudhary said.
To ensure proper supply of coal, the state government has already requested the centre for the allotment of captive coalmines. "We expect the union government will soon allot a coal mine to the Rajasthan government in Chhattisgarh state", Chaudhary said.
Chaudhary said that government land has already been allotted for the construction of the power plant while the acquisition of private land is in progress. The RVUN has already invited tenders for the construction of a boundary wall at the proposed site.
Power generation is likely to begin within three years after the start of the construction work. An agreement has been signed between Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ajmer power distribution companies for the sale of the power that would be generated by the project.
The project is expected to ease power shortage in Rajasthan, which suffers from power deficit of over 27 per cent. At present, the installed electricity generation capability in Rajasthan is just over 4,500 megawatt and almost 70 percent of it is based on thermal energy.