Bajaj Hindustan to set up 1980 Mw power project in Lalitpur

LUCKNOW: The Mayawati cabinet has approved setting up of the 1980 MW thermal power plant in Lalitpur by Bajaj Hindustan led consortium under the MoU route. The cabinet meeting held on Tuesday took the decision to set up the power plant under the MoU route instead of the standard practice of doing so through the case-II bidding procedure.

The MoU between the state government and Bajaj Hindustan led consortium is expected to be signed on Thursday.
An official spokesperson said that under the state governments Power Policy-2009, projects can be awarded through the case-II bidding procedure as well as the MoU route.

Earlier, the state government had proposed to set up 4,000 MW thermal power project in Lalitpur by NTPC but later decided to hand over the project to Bajaj Hindustan under the MoU route.

Under the agreement to be signed, 90% of the power generated would be sold to the state government at the rates approved by the electricity regulatory body and the promoters would be free to sell the remaining 10% wherever they deem fit.

The project spread over 1500 acre land would be situated 60 km from the Rajghat dam in Mirchwara village of Lalitpur district. Water would be brought to the project site from the dam through pipelines.

Land and water would be arranged by the state government while the Bajaj Hindustan led consortium would have to work out the coal linkages for the project.

The cabinet also approved increasing the power capacity of five co generation units of Bajaj Hindustan units.
Earlier Bajaj Hindustan Ltd which is the largest producer of sugar in the country, had signed an agreement in January 2010, with the state government for setting up five coal based thermal power units of 80 MW each at its sugar mills. It was also agreed that Bajaj would sell 50% of the power generated at these units to the UP Power Corporation Ltd at regulatory authority approved rates.

Later Bajaj Hindustan decided to increase the capacity of these units by 10 MW each to a total of 450 MW and also agreed to sell 90% of the power generated to UPPCL.

The Mayawati cabinet approved the proposal of Bajaj Hindustan and gave the go ahead for signing of the agreement.