Jamshedpur, July 20: The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) plans to set up two 1,000 MW power plants in Jharkhand, taking the state closer to becoming the power hub of the east by the end of the decade.

According to sources in the DVC head office at Calcutta, a survey for the proposed power plant at Koderma and Panchet has started and technicians have identified the area for the Koderma project.

The DVC’s public relation office at Calcutta told The Telegraph that they have the two projects on the anvil for the 11th five-year plan, beginning in 2007. However, they stopped short of giving details related to any of the projects.

“Before setting up a power plant several technical aspects have to be taken care of like availability of coal, water, ground soil of the site, connectivity with other places and basic infrastructure,” said a DVC engineer associated with Panchet project.

There is a dam on the Damodar river at Panchet and the place is close to the coal mines. So, it is obvious that the idea of setting up a power plant there would come up, he said. “However, we are looking for a site which is free from litigation and not under the control of the forest department. The site should also be well-connected. All this is important so that there is no problem in the commissioning stage of the units as it happened with the Koelkaro project of the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB),” he said.

The Koelkaro project of setting up 710 MW hydro-electricity plant was abandoned after JSEB failed to get settlers to hand over the land for the project.

After the survey report on the Panchet project is ready, it will be handed over to the head office and a detailed project and feasibility report will be prepared for government approval. DVC officials said the survey work for the Koderma project is complete and the report has been sent for approval from the Union ministry.

“We are looking for a private party to set up the generation units in a joint venture,” DVC officials said.