Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Two days of ‘dark age’ has brought in focus the crippling power situation in the country.
While the government must share a major part of the blame for having failed to ensure optimum generation of power, other factors including local opposition, and environmental and safety concerns too have played a major role in delaying projects.
For instance, NTPC’s Bijapur power project in Karnataka, with a capacity of 4000 MW, is held up due to environmental concerns. The project has yet to get a clearance from the Union Environment Ministry.
Similarly, lack of environmental clearance has held up many other projects – Essar in Madhya Pradesh (1200 MW), NHPC Dibang Valley (3000 MW), Middle Subansiri Hydel (1600 MW), Jaypee’s Lower Siang (2700 MW), Reliance Power’s Chitrangi in Madhya Pradesh (3960 MW), NPCIL’s Mithvirdi in Gujarat (6000) and Cheemeni gas-based project in Kerala (1200 MW).
The Saurashtra coal-based project in Gujarat (1200 MW) is stalled due to forest clearance.
Safety concerns and protests have held up NPCIL’s Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu (2000 MW).
Last but not the least, Coastal Energen Tuticorin project in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of 1200 MW has been delayed because of non execution of power purchase agreement with TNEB.
