Hindujas asked to clear land row

Hyderabad, Jan. 11: The state government on Monday asked the Hinduja Power Corporation to settle their disputes on alienation of land with Visakhapatnam district officials.

A delegation from the company met the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, and requested him to expedite the handing over of the land for the speedy execution of the 1,000 MW power project at Visakhapatnam.

There was a dispute over the land allotted to the Hindujas as some government-owned corporations claimed the land as theirs.

Some of the land was returned to the corporations and then the Hindujas requested allotment of land that is part of transport corridor proposed by the Visakhapatnam Corporation. “Hindujas asked for 86 acres of land which is part of transport corridor and the Chief Minister asked the company to discuss the issue with the Vizag collector and resolve the dispute,” said a senior official.

The company has informed the government that it would like to start the operations of the power project in February and wanted to have the land problems sorted out by then.

Meanwhile, Mr Rosaiah held a review meeting with power officials wherein he expressed concern over the increasing power cuts in the state.

Power generation from hydel projects has plummeted to 5,500 million units against the target of 9,000 million units this year.