Neyveli Lignite Corporation is drawing expansion plans for increasing mining and power generation capacity during the 12th Five Year Plan. It plans to expand its mining capacity to 61.9 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from the present 24 mtpa and power generating capacity to 11,990 Mw from 2,490 Mw. The proposed capacity addition will be from projects under implementation and through projects under formulation, said S Jayaraman, chairman and managing director, at the company''s 51st annual general meeting recently. The power sector in the country is all set to grow at a faster pace with massive capacity additions in the next 10 years. Accordingly, the company has submitted a number of power project proposals for the 11th and 12th Five Year Plan periods, entailing an investment outlay of about Rs 50,000 crore. The company has proposed two 1,000Mw projects in Tamil Nadu, two projects (250 Mw and 500 Mw) in Rajasthan, a 2,000-Mw project in Orissa and a 1,000-Mw project in Gujarat in addition to its mines expansion programme. NLC is also exploring opportunities to establish coal-based power projects in collaboration with Northern Coal Fields Ltd, Central Coal Fields Ltd and South Eastern Coal Fields Ltd, the three subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd.
It also intends to develop underground coal gasification (UCG) projects to tap deepseated as well as shallow lignite deposits which are not amenable to conventional mining. To this effect, an agreement has been entered into with ONGC and suitable lignite blocks identified for development. During the first four months ended July 31, 2007, lignite production stood at 7.49 million tonnes as against 6.55 million tonnes in the same period a year ago, registering an increase of around 14 per cent.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment