Odisha govt okays acquisition of 558 acres of private land for NTPC Gajamara project

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, July 6:

The Odisha government has accorded administrative approval for acquisition of private land measuring 558.20 acres for setting up of various components of the Gajamara thermal power project proposed by NTPC in Dhenkanal district.

The country’s biggest thermal power producer had sought 745.15 acres of land including private land for ash dyke, reservoir area, ash pipe line corridor and railway line corridor for its 1600 MW super thermal power project.

In giving the go ahead for land acquisition, however, the state government has imposed certain conditions, including taking steps for evacuation of 7.0 to 9.0 million tons of fly ash generated every year out of the area through railway or other means and to fight out the impact of air pollution of Saptasajya Reserve forest and Kapilash sanctuary.

The major land requirement was for two components:  ash dyke (437.12 acres) and reservoir (111.61 acres ) while the requirement for the ash pipe line corridor and railway line corridor were pegged at 56.3 acres and 138.12 acres respectively.

The state-owned Investment Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (IPICOL) has assessed the land requirement at 538.34 acres against NTPC’s demand of 745.15 acres. IPICOL had recommended to the Energy department to accord administrative approval to NTPC for the land.

Notification under Section 4 (1) of Land Acquisition Act has already been issued for acquisition of private land for the Gajamara project. NTPC has urged the state government to expedite issue of 6 (1) notification.

The Gajamara project needs 1013 acres of land. Of the total land needed for the project, 795.85 acres are privately owned. The land is to be acquired in four affected villages – Talabarkote (440.23 acres), Patra bhag (194.61 acres), Manipur (99.46 acres) and Siaria (61.55 acres). NTPC has to fork out Rs 152.54 crore for acquisition of the private land.

NTPC will set up a power engineering institute at Dhenkanal that is linked to its Gajamara plant.