Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Land given for Hinduja project is Wakf property

HYDERABAD: The Government has decided that the 5,307 acres of land at Devada near Visakhapatnam, part of which was earlier allotted to Hindujas and NTPC for setting up power plants, is a Wakf property.

The decision identifying the land as belonging to Wakf Board, and not to the Revenue Department, was taken by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy at a meeting here on Wednesday on Hindujas project, a power plant taken up in 1994 on “fast track mode” but could not see light of the day even after allotment of 1,122 acres of land at Devada. The land was sold to the firm for Rs. 2.25 lakh per acre. While taking the decision, the Chief Minister went by a Supreme Court verdict. With this, the project is back to square one. The Chief Minister issued instructions that re-negotiations should be conducted with the Wakf Board or Minority Welfare Department for purchase of lands, Energy Minister Mohd Ali Shabbir told reporters later.

A senior Energy official said the Hindujas had made a payment of Rs. 10 crores, covering 370 out of the 1,122 acres allotted. Similarly, NTPC which had been allotted 803 acres, had cleared the payment for 523 acres. The NTPC sought the land to expand its Simhadri power project. The project proposed by Hindujas, with an installed capacity of 1,040 MW, has always been at the receiving end with its cost working out to Rs. 5.98 crores per MW which some experts dubbed as anti-consumer. Of late, the Hindujas finalised plan to covert the project into a ‘merchant power plant’, envisaging to sell power generated by the plant in the open market after allotting 25 per cent to the AP Transco at NTPC purchase rate (around Rs 2 per unit). Speculations were rife that the company made another proposal to the Government to treat the land as a special economic zone instead of seeking it back.

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