Business standard reports on this. Following are some excerpts.

 The Thapar-owned Ballarpur Industries Ltd (Bilt) power outfit BILT Power proposes to set up a 1,200-Mw independent power plant (IPP) in Orissa at an investment of around Rs 6,000 crore.

… BILT Power is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government soon.

Funds for the project would be sourced through loans from banks and financial institutions (FIs), of which 70 per cent would be debt and 30 per cent would come in as promoters’ equity.

BILT Power Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anil Bhargava told Business Standard, “The detailed project report and feasibility study reports have already been submitted to the government. We are just awaiting the government nod to go ahead with the project.”

Bilt Power has already cleared the screening committee process for setting up the plant. Requirements for setting up the IPP has been forwarded to the state government.

The IPP is proposed to be set up in Choudwar on 950 acres. The Thapars already have paper production facilities in the state. They also have a captive power plant (CPP) at Sewa in Koraput district of the state.

Currently, BILT Power aggregates 100 Mw of CPP capacity at Sewa, Yamunanagar in Haryana and two plants each at Pune and Ballarshah in Maharashtra.

These plants have capacities between 25 Mw and 30 Mw each. Bilt Power has applied for allotment of coal blocks at Mandakini in the Talcher Coalfields of Orissa.

S Jagdev, head, corporate affairs, (eastern region), Bilt, said, “About 6 million tonne (MT) of coal would be required annually to feed the power plant.”