2 February 2010 - Construction work on Lanco Babandh Power's 2640 MW (4 x 660 MW) coal power plant at Babandh in the Indian state of Orissa is likely to be delayed by a year due to land acquisition problems.

 

Work on the Rs 4500 crore ($972m) power plant was to commence in 2009. However, the project is yet to take off as the acquisition of private land is posing problem in project implementation.

 

The project requires about 1232 acres. While only 127s acre is government land, the remaining is private land. The company has taken steps to expedite the process of land acquisition by opting for acquiring land through the direct purchase route. The company has bought 250 acres from the tenants after obtaining permission.

 

For acquisition of the remaining patch of land, notification under Section 6 (1) has already been issued, according to sources. Due to delay in the work, the commissioning of Unit I of 600 MW of the power plant which was scheduled to be operational in 2011 will also be delayed by a year.