MIDC plans to invite bids for its planned 1,000MW power plant project in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district. The corporation was earlier planning a power SEZ in this location, to ensure cheap power for the State

After initially announcing plans for developing a power special economic zone (SEZ), Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has now scaled down its Chandrapur power project to a plain vanilla 1,000MW power plant. Bids for the private development of this power plant are expected to be called for this month.

"All the required clearances are on the way. Now we are going ahead to tender it out to the private sector," said Dr K Shivaji, chief executive officer, MIDC. The plant which is situated at Bhadrawati in Chandrapur district would be given out to private developers on a public-private partnership. The bids are likely to be invited this month.

In 2006, MIDC had announced plans for setting up power SEZs. However, four years later, the government body has scrapped the power SEZ plan and is now developing the Chandrapur project as a simple power plant.

Power SEZs were first planned in order to produce cheap power in the State. A power SEZ would have allowed using duty fuel in producing power. In addition, the construction costs would have also reduced considerably as the material used for plant construction would have also been duty-free. "This will help us to generate power at a cheaper rate," Rajiv Jalota, former chief executive officer, MIDC, was quoted as saying in a media report in 2006.

At present, Maharashtra faces a peak power deficit of 24.4% or 4,724MW and an energy deficit of 21.5% or 2,609MW. While around 2,100MW of power has been added in the State during the 10th Five Year Plan, there has been no contribution from the private sector. Major cities in the State face issues like load-shedding for several hours, due to the acute power shortage.

This 1,000MW capacity to be added through the power SEZ would have been significant and economical for the State. As per Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data, the State's energy requirement is around 12,132MW out of which around 9,523MW is available.

Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) chairman VP Raja has also emphasised the need for power projects to fructify on time, to ensure better power supply in the State. "For the State to become power sufficient, there are enough projects on the table at present, but the original ground-level issues like land acquisitions are a concern. There are a lot of projects on the shelf, but how many of them fructify (is to be seen)," he had said in an interview with Moneylife

 — Amritha Pillay