The Centre has finalised three new sites, each in Orissa, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu for setting up of 4,000-mw ultra mega power projects. Two more sites in Chattisgarh and Karnataka are under discussion for which a decision will be taken soon.
This was decided at a high level meeting on UMPPs, convened under the chairmanship of power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Monday with states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Orissa. The meeting was also attended by finance minister P Chidambaram, minister of law and justice HR Bhardwaj, minister of science and technology and earth sciences Kapil Sibal, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia–all members of the empowered group of ministers on UMPPs as well as minister of state for power and commerce Jairam Ramesh and member (power), Planning Commission.
The state governments were represented by minister of energy, Tamil Nadu, minister of power, Karanataka and minister of energy, Maharashtra. In addition, senior Central and state government officials including the representatives of Chhattisgarh and Orissa also participated in the discussions.
The meeting was called to expedite decisions in respect of five more UMPPs after kick starting the four projects at Mundra, Sasan, Krishnapatnam and Tilaiya. ?All three of the UMPPs awarded so far (Mundra in Gujarat, Sasan in Madhya Pradesh and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh) have indicated substantial preponement of their commissioning schedules and it is expected that it will now be possible to commission a few units aggregating about 3,000 mw within the 11th Plan itself whereas they were to give benefits in the 12th Plan,? said a statement from the ministry of power.