KEPL Backs off from Thermal Power Project in State, Nine Others in Limbo.

Even as Kalinga Energy and Power Limited (KEPL) has informed the State Government to withdraw from the 1,320-MW thermal power project in Jharsuguda district, nine MoUs signed for independent power projects (IPPs) are in limbo. A Shyam Group of company, KEPL, backed off from the Odisha project citing delay in acquisition of land by the State Government. One of the six companies to sign MoU with the State Government on February 7, 2009, KEPL had proposed to set up a 1,000-mw coal fired power plant at Babuchakuli in Sambalpur district with an investment of Rs.4261.27 crore. In 2011, the company revised the configuration of the project from 1,000 mw to 1,320 mw comprising two units of 660-mw each with an investment of Rs. 6,500 crore. It requested the State Government to relocate the site to Sodamal near Kolabira in Jharsuguda district.