Hyderabad: In a major push to the state government’s plans to boost the power generation infrastructure, the Experts Appraisal Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on Friday gave the Terms of Reference for the 5x800 (4,000 MW) super critical thermal power project to be set up at Damaracherla in Nalgonda district.
The issuance of ToR assumes significance as the EAC had deferred giving it on the two occasions it had met earlier. The Human Rights Forum has complained that the proposed power plant would pose a threat to a water body flowing in the vicinity and that hundreds of families would be displaced.
The EAC, which met in Delhi on Friday, gave the ToR, following which the TSGenco can now go in for acquiring machinery and start the process of setting up the plant.
“The ToR is the first and the main step towards setting up a thermal power plant. A public hearing would also be conducted in due course before taking environment clearance. Our stand that we had followed every rule laid down by the MoEF has been proved right,” said TSGenco CMD D. Prabhakar Rao.
He said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s promise of making TS a power-surplus state would be realized before 2019.
