Reliance zeroes in on Dadri for power plant

Reliance group on Wednesday announced its decision to set up the world’s largest gas-based power generation project at Dadri (Ghaziabad) in western Uttar Pradesh. “The ultimate objective of selecting the site was to ensure the least cost of delivered power to millions of consumers by optimisation of site development expenses, proximity to gas and water sources and well developed infrastructure facilities,” Anil D Ambani, vice chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, said in a statement here.

The selection of the site in Ghaziabad district follows Reliance’s announcement on January 27 about plans to set up a 3,500 MW gas-based power generation plant in UP, at an investment of over Rs 10,000 crore. The mega project would be based on environment-friendly natural gas discovered by Reliance in Dhirubhai gas fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin (in Bay of Bengal), the largest gas discovery in 2002-03.

UP government officials and Reliance initially identified 10 sites for the proposed power project. Five sites were further shortlisted, and finally Dadri was selected as the preferred location. Listing out the advantages of Dadri site, an official release said it was 40 km from Delhi, and well connected for easy transportation of equipment, leading to speedy project implementation. “The proposed power project will produce clean-green power using environment-friendly natural gas as fuel,” Ambani said in the statement.

Other advantages of the Dadri site include proximity to water source for the project with the main Ganga canal just two to three km from the site; easy evacuation of power produced – PowerGrid’s Dadri substation just eight km from the site; and proximity to the users as the site is suitably located to supply power to Delhi, UP and other adjoining northern states.