Chennai: The Union environment ministry has granted the much-awaited environment clearance for the 1,320 MW Ennore SEZ thermal power project enabling Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) to proceed with awarding contract for execution of the project.
A senior Tangedco official said with the project receiving critical environmental clearance, they would be able to award the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Rs 9,180 crore project.
After floating bids for the power plant in April last year, Tangedco received bids from four companies, including BHEL and three Chinese companies, whose technical bids were opened. “Now we are evaluating the technical bids.
Once it is done, we will place the bids in the board meeting to get the approval to open the price bid,” the official said, adding that the contract would be awarded in a month’s time. EPC contract for the 1.320 MW Udangudi thermal power plant would also be awarded simultaneously as the same four companies have placed the bids for this project too.
The new power project would be established in the 500 acres of ash dyke of North Chennai Thermal Power in Vayalur village, near here, and it would be operated with the coal imported from Indonesia to meet its annual requirement of 4.29 million tonnes.
The environment ministry, in its communication dated January 7, has asked the project proponent against transporting imported coal by road. The imported coal would be transported from the Ennore port to the plant through pipe conveyor. It also advised Tangedco to allocate of Rs 37 crore as one-time capital cost for CSR programme besides an annual recurring expenditure of Rs 7.40 crore.
Though Tangedco has revised the capacity of the project from two units of 800 capacity each to 660 MW each, the ministry’s communication refers to the project capacity as 2x800 MW.
