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Andhra Pradesh to take back lands given to Central PSUs?
NTPC-BHEL Power Projects Private Ltd
Says PSUs failed to meet committed investment timelines & set up units
Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government is seeking to take back close to 750 acres of land it allotted to NTPC-BHEL Power Projects Private Ltd (NBPPL) at Mannavaram village in Chittoor district as the joint venture company is on the verge of winding up its business.
This apart, the State government is also listing out lands given at concessional rates to various otherCentral government public sector undertakings for setting up their units across AP.
"Lands should be handed over back to the state if the Central PSUs did not meet the committed investment timelines and set up their units. We can put those lands to alternative use," the state government told the Centre. The then government headed by Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh sold 753.85 acres of land in the year 2009 to NBPPL at Rs 100 an acre for setting up the huge industrial plant for manufacturing equipment for power plants.
The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the project near Srikalahasti on September 1, 2010. The JV was supposed to invest Rs 6,000 crore and create 6,000 direct jobs and indirect employment for another 30,000 people when the plant went into full steam by 2015.
Till date, however, NBPPL employed only 63 people.
The project was touted to be the first integrated plant in the country for manufacturing turbines, generators and boilers under one roof, with an annual capacity of 5,000 MW equipment.
It was also expected to enable setting up of more than 400 ancillary units boosting industrialisation and providing huge employment opportunities in the backward Chittoor district.
But the project did not take shape as envisaged and NBPPL is now reduced to manufacturing balance of plant packages like coal and ash handling and water treatment plants.
"The company management has informed us that it is on the verge of winding up. It is now sitting on 748.64 acres of un-utilised land as the project has been implemented in only 5.21 acres," a top official of the Industries and Infrastructure Department said.
The company also did not fulfil its commitment for investment and employment generation while huge tract of land remained "idle and unproductive", the official pointed out. As such, the state government is asking NBPPL to return the 748.64 acres of land, worth hundreds of crores of rupees, to the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation. State Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy once told the Assembly that the government was looking at "alternatives" as the proposed project did not take full shape.
