Ranchi, May 3: The Raghubar Das government today inked an MoU with NTPC for a joint venture company to set up a 4,000MW greenfield project on Patratu Thermal Power Station land in Ramgarh and upgrade the existing facility, a salve for the state smarting under Reliance Power's pullout from Tilaiya.
Yesterday, the state cabinet gave its nod to the joint venture (JV) after two months of intense negotiations.
Chief minister Das, Union ministers of state for power and skill development Piyush Goyal and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, NTPC and Coal India chairpersons Arup Roy Choudhury and Sutirtha Bhattacharya and secretary of the coal ministry Anil Swarup were among those present when the deal was signed at a Ranchi hotel by Jharkhand energy secretary S.K.G. Rahate and NTPC directors Indrajeet Kapoor (commercial) and K. Biswal (finance).
NTPC and the state will hold 74 per cent and 26 per cent equity in the new joint venture.
While NTPC will arrange the finance to set up the proposed 4,000MW greenfield project, the state government, which has agreed to provide land and water linkage, will participate in a cash-less equity.
The proposed 4,000MW greenfield project will have five units, each with an installed capacity of 800MW. Phase I will have three units, with generation likely from 2019. Phase II, with two units, will start generation by 2022.
"While the state will give all help to NTPC to set up the new 4,000MW thermal power plant at Patratu, I expect NTPC to strictly adhere to agreed deadlines of 2019 and 2022 for phases I and II of the greenfield project to commence production," chief minister Das said.
"Through the JV, we will upgrade Patratu's power generation from 110MW to 4,000MW," NTPC chairman Arup Roy Choudhury promised.
The state government has also requested the Union power ministry to allot 85 per cent of power generated at the greenfield project to Jharkhand.
"We shall take a decision in the matter soon," Union minister Goyal said.
On the rates per unit of energy to be charged by NTPC, the minister stressed they were determined by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and the ministry had no hand in it. "We expect rates to be below Rs 3 per unit," he added.
Reliance pullout
Union minister of state for power Piyush Goyal said on Sunday he came to know of the decision of Reliance Power to pull out of the 3,960MW Tilaiya project in Hazaribagh through newspaper reports.
"We expect to get formal reports (from both state and Reliance) on the development soon. We shall take an appropriate decision after this," the minister said.
