Adani Group plans Rs 20K crore super critical thermal power plant in Bihar

Billionaire Gautam Adani's group will invest about Rs 28,000 crore in setting up a ultra-super critical thermal power plant as well as expanding cement production capacity, food processing and logistics business in Bihar as the ports-to-energy conglomerate charts aggressive growth plans.

Pranav Adani, Director, Adani Enterprises Ltd, made the announcement at the Bihar Business Connect 2024 here. The group is aggressively pursuing growth strategy, expanding in core business and pursuing new opportunities.

"We are also exploring investment avenues in Bihar's energy sector. Our plan is to invest around Rs 20,000 crore to set up an ultra-super critical thermal power plant," he said.

"We expect such a massive project to open up at least 12,000 job vacancies in the pre-commissioning phase and also lead to around 1,500 skilled jobs during the operational phase, he added.

While he did not indicate the capacity of the power plant, ultra supercritical plants could be of 1,980 megawatt size. They use coal to generate electricity.

He also did not give details like location and timeframe.

Bihar is currently deficient in electricity generation capacity. Its 6,400 MW of capacity lags peak demand of over 8,000 MW. The new plant will not just help the state bridge the gap but also feed neighbouring states as well.

"We are now going to invest another Rs 2,300 crore in these sectors. This investment will not only massively increase our warehousing and handling capacity and expand our presence in the EV, City Gas Distribution (CGD) and Compressed Biogas (CBG) space but will also generate an additional 27,000 direct and indirect local job opportunities," he said.

The group is also looking to potentially invest another Rs 1,000 crore in developing strategic infrastructure in Bihar, like Gati Shakti Railway Terminals, ICDs (Inland Container Depots) and Industrial Warehousing Parks.

"Another sector we are investing in is smart meter manufacturing. As Bihar migrates from conventional electric meters to smart meters, we will invest Rs 2,100 crore to manufacture and install over 28 lakh smart meters to automate power-consumption-monitoring in five cities -- Siwan, Gopalganj, Vaishali, Saran and Samastipur -- and this will generate at least 4,000 local jobs in this technology segment," he said.

The cement plants it has in the state will be expanded to 10 million tonnes per annum capacity with an investment of Rs 2,500 crore in multiple phases.