Patna, May 2: The Bihar government’s sustained efforts to convince the Centre to pay heed to the state’s demands in the power sector have finally started paying dividends.

In the past one month, the Congress-led UPA has pledged to allocate 50 per cent power to Bihar from Phase II of the Barh thermal power plant, 61MW additional allocation from Unit 6 of the National Thermal Power Corporation’s Farakka plant and 100MW from Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).

Besides, the Union power ministry has sent a letter to the coal ministry for providing coal linkage for the extension project at Barauni thermal power plant. It has also given its in-principle approval for setting up an additional 600MW thermal power plant at Nabinagar and 3,300MW projects that would come up in two stages at the same place.

All this started with Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s visit to Patna on March 20 when, during a meeting with chief minister Nitish Kumar and energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, he said Bihar would get 50 per cent power allocation from NTPC’s Barh Phase II plant.

This means that the state would get 660MW from two units (660MWx2) of 1,320MW as a “home state share” in the second phase. The units would be commissioned by the end of 2013-14 fiscal. The state’s power allocation from the central sector increased as the Bihar State Electricity Board started getting additional 61.32MW from April 4 from the Unit 6 of NTPC’s super thermal power station at Farakka. Bihar got a little more than 12 per cent of share in NTPC’s 6th unit of Farakka, which has an installed capacity of 500MW. The Union power ministry also gave its nod to allocation of another 100MW from Damodar Valley Corporation. “The decision was intimated to the state’s energy department as the issue was raised during Shinde’s meeting with the chief minister in the state capital on March 20,” Yadav told The Telegraph.

On April 6, an all-party delegation, led by the chief minister, met Shinde in New Delhi with a plea for coal linkage and more power allocation. Following this, the power ministry “strongly recommended” coal linkage for the expansion project of Barauni thermal power plant.

“The Union power ministry has recommended coal linkage for all the four projects of the state government, including the three power plants at Chausa in Buxar, Kajra in Lakhisarai and Pirpainty in Bhagalpur. But the power ministry recommended to the coal ministry allocation of coal linkage for Barauni’s expansion plan as a ‘special case’,” Yadav said, adding that the state had never got any coal linkage after 1977. The Centre has also recently given its in-principle nod to the setting up an additional thermal power plant of 660MW capacity at Nabinagar, the place where Nitish had on January 28 laid the foundation for a 1,980MW unit to be set up as part of Phase I once the land acquisition hurdles are cleared. Altogether 3,300MW power projects, with a capacity of 3,300MW, have to be set up at Nabinagar in two phases by Nabinagar Power Generating Company Pvt Ltd, which is a 50:50 joint venture between NTPC and Bihar State Electricity Board.

The Union government has in the meantime asked NTPC to explore the feasibility whether or not a 6th unit could be set up at the same site taking the total installed capacity to 3960 MW.

Describing the recent decisions of the Centre as a positive step, Yadav said: “After all, it is the duty and responsibility of the Union government. The state’s responsibility is to provide only land and water. But issues such as coal linkage and forest and environment clearance are the Centre’s job.”