Estimated cost of NTPC's 2,000 mw Talcher Stage-II super thermal power project, which is scheduled for commissioning in February, 2006, has risen to Rs 7,670 crore from the earlier estimate of Rs 6,648.83 crore.

Similarly, the 1000 mw Simhadri thermal power project is now estimated to cost Rs 4,035.18 crore, up by Rs 384.39 crore from the earlier estimate of Rs 3,650.79 crore, according to officials in the project monitoring division of ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

The Simhadri TPP is scheduled for commissioning by December, 2002, while the 460 mw Stage-I of Talcher TPP was taken over from Orissa State Electricity Board at an estimated cost of Rs 356 crore, the first 500 mw unit of the 2000 mw Stage-II expansion will come up by November, 2003, company sources said.

The remaining three units of 500 mw each would come up in August 2004, May 2005 and February 2006 respectively.

The entire power from Stage-II of the Talcher Super TPP would be supplied to states in the southern region - Andhra Pradesh (425 mw), Tamil Nadu (541 mw), Karnataka (396 mw), Kerala (286 mw) and Pondicherry (58 mw).

Fuel (coal) linkage for the project is from Talcher Coal Field Lingraj block, they said. The first 500 mw unit of Japanese Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) funded Simhadri thermal power project is scheduled for commissioning in March, 2002 and the second unit would come up by the end of 2002.