Orissa Power Generation

Orissa Power Generation Corporation Limited (OPGC) in India started as a "wholly owned government company of the state of Orissa with the main objective of establishing, operating & maintaining large thermal power generating stations." It was incorporated on November 14, 1984.

OPGC established the Ib Valley power station with two units of 210 MW each in the Ib valley area of Jharsuguda District, Orissa. The units became operational in 1994 and 1996, respectively. The generation from the units are committed to Gridco – the state owned Power Transmission & Trading Company. As a part of privatization in the energy sector of the state, 49% of the equity was divested in favour of AES Corporation in early 1999.

On June 29, 2011, the Ministry of Environment and Forests gave approval to three proposed plants in Orissa and cleared six coal blocks related to the plants. The Manoharpur and Manoharpur Dipside were allocated to the 1320-MW power plant of Orissa Power Generation. Five of the six coal blocks were in areas the Environment Ministry had previously defined as no go areas for mining in 2010, as those areas had over 30 per cent gross forest cover.

Citizen Action
On Sep. 21, 2011, civil society groups said the Orissa government should conduct a fresh study on thermal power plants in the state, a day after the National Green Tribunal recommended in-depth research on the impact of radiation from a plant at Koradi in Maharashtra. Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) convenor Ranjan Panda said: "all under construction thermal power plants [should] stop work before such impacts assessments are done and ask for fresh environment impact assessment studies and public hearings for these plants in line with the latest judgment."

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