Ranchi, April 3: Threat texts and calls to a senior National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) official have spurred police and CISF cover for the upcoming North Karanpura super thermal power project of NTPC in Tandwa area of Chatra district, which shares borders with Maoist strongholds of Latehar.

Last month, a general manager-rank official of NTPC received warnings through SMS and phone calls, purportedly from the CPI(Maoist), which said that if levy weren't paid, the project would be blow up. Company officials approached the Chatra superintendent of police and district administration, besides state authorities, seeking protection .

Public sector undertaking NTPC is setting up a 660x3MW power plant in Tandwa. The project site is around 70km from the district headquarters and over 150km from Ranchi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated commissioning work online from the state capital on August 21, 2014.

The NTPC has involved Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited as an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor for the ambitious project, which involves Rs 14,000 crore.

Chatra SP Surendra Kumar Jha said that demanding levy was a common practice in the district and that security had been beefed up at the project site. "Issuing threats for levy is not new, but we will not allow any rebel group to disturb the project," Jha, a 2010-batch IPS officer, said over phone from Chatra. He refused to divulge the number of police and CISF personnel guarding the site, citing security reasons.

A senior NTPC official, requesting anonymity, said they did not want unnecessary media hype because "it can hamper work, which is going on smoothly". Others added that they had fixed 2018 as the deadline to start the power plant from Tandwa and disruptions of any kind was evidently unwelcome.

The foundation stone for the Tandwa project had been laid in 1999 by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But, the project remained a non-starter for over a decade owing to a tussle between the Union energy and coal ministries. The original site had good deposit of coal, but the project had to be shifted later.

NTPC has been allocated three coal blocks in Jharkhand. These are Chhatti-Bariatu, Chhatti-Bariatu South and Keredari. Coal from these blocks will go to the Tandwa plant in the future.