NAGPUR: NTPC will set up two 500-MW units under the first phase of its Mouda power project near here by 2012 at an investment of Rs 5,700 crore, Nagpur District Guardian Minister Shivajirao Moghe said.
“The first unit 
will start power generation by March, 2012, while the second unit will be functional by September. The work on setting up two units of 500-MW each is on schedule and necessary land acquisition has been done within record time without any resistance from farmers,” Moghe told reporters here during a site visit.
Moghe said the project would cost Rs 5,700 crore for the first phase (1,000 MW, with two 500-MW units) and Rs 8,500 crore for the second phase (1320 MW, with two 660-MW units).
The NTPC plant will get coal from public sector undertaking Western Coalfields Limited and water from the Inter-District Irrigation project at Gosikhurd, he said.
Praveen Darade, who demitted the office of District Collector and played a major role in land acquisition, said 18 km of pipleline out of 32 km has been laid for bringing water to the power plant.
Farmers have been paid Rs 10 lakh per hectare and and a total of Rs 27 crores has been already disbursed till now, Darade — also the Chairman of the Nagpur Improvement Trust – said.
About 624 families from 15 villages were affected by the project and their rehabilitation was the priority of the government, he added.
Moghe said as part of its commitment, NTPC would sell 37 per cent of the total power generated to Maharashtra.
As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, NTPC would be setting up a fully equipped hospital and a school also.
To a question, Moghe, flanked by District Collector Saurabh Rao, said the Mouda power plant will be free of fly ash.
“It will be 99.95 per cent free of fly-ash since new technology has been procured for setting up the plant in Nagpur district,” he said.
Moghe agreed to make efforts to bring the western region office of NTPC back to the city after it was shifted some 15 years ago.
