NTPC denies interest in Tilaiya ultra mega power plant following Reliance Power’s exit

State-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has denied any plan to step into the 4,000-mega watt (MW) Tilaiya ultra mega power plant (UMPP) in Jharkhand after Reliance Power pulled out of the project citing undue delays in acquiring land for the project.

NTPC has clarified that it was not interested in taking over the project contrary to the prevailing “wrong impression that NTPC is very keen to step into the Tilaiya project”. The clarification from NTPC came after the company’s chairman Arup Roy Choudhury was reported as having said that the company was more than willing to come on board for the Tilaiya project. NTPC was the second lowest bidder for the project, which was bagged by Reliance Power in 2009.

Total land requirement for the project was over 17,000 acres, but the state had managed to acquire a little more than 400 acres for the project.

RPower had, in August 2009, won rights to set up the 3,960-MW power plant at Hazaribagh in Jharkhand after bidding a levelised tariff of Rs 1.77 per unit. However, it could not start work on the project as the state government had not provided the required land even after more than five years.

NTPC Limited