Patna, Nov. 24: NTPC chairman-cum-managing director Arup Roy Choudhury will on Sunday review the progress of work on making the first unit of its super thermal power plant at Barh functional by June 2013.

The power major had promised chief minister Nitish Kumar to start the first unit (660MW) of the 3,000MW super thermal plant by June next year.

This would ne Choudhury’s second visit to Barh plant after April when he had gone there for the first time to inspect the construction work. “We have been working on a war footing to achieve the deadline of starting the first unit of Stage-II in 2013-14. Choudhury will inaugurate the boiler light up of unit number four of the plant in the second phase. This exercise (boiler light up) is considered an important step towards commissioning the plant,” Vishwanath Chandan, assistant manager (public relations), NTPC, Barh, told The Telegraph.

Sources said the department was serious to complete Stage II (1,320 MW) of the Barh plant.

Nitish had made an inspection of second phase of the power plant on May 21 this year and reviewed the progress and problems faced by various NTPC projects in the state. According to the schedule of the second phase of Barh plant, the first unit would be commissioned by June 2013 while the second unit would be made operational by September 2014.