By IANS,
New Delhi : India’s first mega-power project in the private sector will be fully commercial by Aug 15, Minister of State of Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh announced in Chhattisgarh Sunday.
The minister, on a visit to the 1,000 megawatt O.P. Jindal super thermal power plant site at Tamnar near Raigarh in Chattisgarh, also said private power companies should stop poaching on public sector units like National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC ) and Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and begin to make investments in training and human resource development, a government statement said.
The Rs.43-billion mega power plant at Tamnar is being set up by Jindal Power Ltd (JPL).
JPL already has four units of 250 megawatt each at Tamnar and feeds over 800 megawatt into the national grid.
But it is now embarking on a massive expansion programme involving the addition of another 2,500 megawatt at the Tamnar plant and an additional 2,500 megawatt in Dumka in Jharkhand.
Ramesh asked JPL executive vice-chairman and managing director Navin Jindal to source plant and machinery for the expansion programme from BHEL.
Jindal said his company envisaged a capacity creation of 35,000 megawatt over the next 25 years.
JPL is also keen on expanding further into hydel power and nuclear power, he added.