I
Providing relief to Reliance Power, the Government has exempted the company from providing non-forest land to compensate for the loss of forest land to be acquired for its 3,960-MW ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Tilaiya, Jharkhand.
The Cabinet Committee on Investment on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the Power Ministry’s proposal to tweak land acquisition norms for ultra mega power projects, a Ministry official told
Henceforth, UMPPs will be considered at par with Government undertakings when it comes to compensatory afforestation. This means that it will not be mandatory for the UMPP developer to provide non-forest land to compensate for forest land acquired for a project.
The developer can deposit the cost of the land with the State Government, a benefit available only to Central Government or public sector undertakings.
The Government initiated the policy change in the backdrop of Reliance Power, an Anil Ambani Group company, not being able to find non-forest land to be given in lieu of land acquired for the power plant and its captive coal block.
The project was to be commissioned in 2012, but was delayed by the land issue.
Moily effect? Jayanthi Natarajan, the previous environment minister, was against this proposal.
Under her regime, the Ministry argued that the Tilaiya project, being a fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Power, should not be treated as a Central Government Undertaking for the purpose of the compensatory afforestation.
Her successor M. Veerappa Moily is understood to have agreed to the proposal.
Reliance Power had bagged the project on August 7, 2009, by offering an average tariff of Rs 1.77 a unit.
According to the UMPP model, the Government is obliged to extend support for expeditious clearances. In fact, the zero date of contractual obligations starts with the handing over of land for the main plant area.
Thus far, only 470 acres of private land have been handed over to the developer.
About 855 acres of Government land and about 1,220 acres of forest land are yet to be released by the Jharkhand Government.