Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has urged the Centre to initiate the bidding process for and implementation of the Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) at Bedabahal in Sundergarh district at the earliest.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 22, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has said the Centre has recently launched the joint initiative to provide 24X7 ‘Power for All’, which will not only drive economic development, but also enhance the quality of life of the common man.
In order to achieve this objective, generation of power would also need to be increased commensurately, he pointed out.
He said the UMPP was supposed to be taken up on a fast track mode for which Odisha as the host state has already contributed nearly Rs 350 crore as sought by the project proponents of UMPP.
However, the progress of the UMPP is rather slow even when all the requisite support is being provided by the state government, Patnaik said adding that there has been an inordinate delay in preparation and finalization of Standard Bidding Document (SBD).
Further, as the host state, the state government has already submitted its views and concerns relating to the SBD, which have been duly addressed, he pointed out.
“Considering the fact that Odisha is looking up to the generation of power from the UMPP at Bedabahal, I would, therefore, request you to kindly issue suitable instructions to the concerned authorities for early initiation of the bidding process and implementation of the said project,” the chief minister said in his letter.
Notably, the Centre has initiated the process of setting up an UMPP at Bedabahal, which is targeted to generate 4000 MW of power. The UMPP in Odisha is structured to be developed through two SPVs, namely Odisha Integrated Power Limited (OIPL) and Odisha Infra Power Ltd. (OINPL), which are subsidiaries of Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFCL).