The Nabinagar Thermal Power Station Project (NTPS) of Bhartiya Rail Bijlee Company Limited is a wholly owned

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

Ministry of Railways A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructur ...

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

. It installs a 4X 250 MW thermal power plant at

Nabinagar Navinagar is a city cum Nagar Panchayat in Aurangabad district in the Indian state of Bihar, and is the location of Nabinagar Super Thermal Power Project. Geography Nabinagar is located at . Its average elevation is 138 metres (452 f ...

Aurangabad district, Bihar Aurangabad district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India. It is currently a part of the Red Corridor. Aurangabad played a major role in the Indian independence struggle, and is also the birthplace of eminent nationalist ...

, India. Nearly 90 per cent of the electricity generated from the plant is supplied to the railways to meet nationwide requirements and remaining 10 per cent is given to Bihar. In 1989, the Chief Minister of Bihar and veteran leader Satyendra Narain Singh conceived the proposal to set up a NTPC's super thermal power project at Nabinagar in Bihar's Aurangabad district to

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

, the

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

and Congress leader. However, the project went into limbo as the following state governments failed to follow it. In 2007, Manmohan Singh's government finally put a stamp of approval on it. The joint venture agreement was signed on 6 November 2007 and the company was incorporated on 22 November 2007. Commercial generation started from Unit-1 and 2 (2X250MW) of Bharatiya Rail Bijli Company Limited in 2016.

Need for the plant

The railways need the plant because of the demands of a globalising economy and mega projects of the Railways such as the planned Dedicated Freight Corridors across the country. The electricity from this plant will be utilized by Indian Railways for running electric trains in

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

and

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

in the eastern and western regions of the country. The

Union Cabinet of India The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

has, in view of the high tariff charged by State Electricity Boards, approved the railways' proposal for using direct power supply from Central generating agencies from the 15 per cent unallocated central share of power. Railways are saving about Rs. 50

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

per annum due to implementation of these schemes for using direct power supply from NTPC/Central generating agencies. EPC is being undertaken by public sector major

BHEL Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. It is based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1956, BHEL is India ...

Location

The project site is situated on a state highway which is 25 km south of NH-2 from Barun, 9 km from ‘Nabinagar Road’ Railway Station and 100 km from

Gaya Airport Gaya Airport is an international airport serving Gaya, Bihar, India. This airport is 12 kilometres south-west of Gaya and 5 kilometres away from the temple city of Bodh Gaya, from where Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment. Overview Gaya ...

Inputs

Water requirement for the project is 60

cubic feet per second Cubic may refer to: Science and mathematics * Cube (algebra), "cubic" measurement * Cube, a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex ** Cubic crystal system, a crystal system ...

which is allocated from the upper stream of the

Sone River Son River ( hi, सोन नदी, also spelt Sone River) is a perennial river located in central India. It originates near Amarkantak Hill in Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi district of Chhattisgarh and finally merges with the Ganges River near Pa ...

(

Indrapuri Barrage Indrapuri Barrage (also known as the Sone Barrage) is across the Son River in Rohtas district in the Indian state of Bihar. The Barrage The Sone Barrage at Indrapuri is long and is the fourth longest barrage in the world. It was constructed ...

). Coal requirement for the project is 5 MTPA. The coal linkage of 5 MTPA has been accorded from Pachra & Pachra south block,

North Karanpura Coalfield North Karanpura Coalfield is located in Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Chatra and Latehar districts in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Overview In 1917, L.S.S.O’Malley described the coalfields in the upper reaches of the Damodar as follows: "Near the weste ...

Central Coalfields Limited Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) is a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), an undertaking of the Government of India. CCL was established in 1956 as National Coal Development Corporation Limited and is a Public sector undertakings in India ...

which is approximately 215 km from the project site.

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries for the power generated from NTPC are Indian Railways (90%) and Bihar State (10%). PPA has been signed with both of the beneficiaries.

Installed capacity

References