Centre's environment panel clears Adani Power, NLC India and GMR Group's expansion plans for coal-fired power plants

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An expert panel of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has given its nod to Adani Power Ltd, NLC India and GMR Power for the expansion of their existing thermal power plants with a combined additional capacity of 2,470 megawatts (MW).

The clearances come at a time when India is rushing to add 90 gigawatts (GW) coal-fired power generation capacity in the coming six years to meet the country's growing energy needs. India's peak power demand is projected to touch 458 GW by 2032, and to meet that the country plans increase its overall power generation capacity to 900 GW from the current 476 GW.

The environment ministry's expert appraisal committee (EAC) on thermal plants recommended going ahead with the expansion of the 600 MW Lanco Amarkantak Power plant in Korba, Chhattisgarh, which was acquired by the Adani Group in September last year. Adani Power Ltd is expanding this plant with additional 1,320 MW (660 MW x 2) capacity. The company plans to add 13.12 GW thermal capacity by FY32 to reach 30.67 GW, up from 17.5 GW currently.

Also read: Adani, Tata, Vedanta make a power play for coal-fired projects after five-year lull.

NLC India's 800 MW phase-II of its Talabira Thermal Power Project in Odisha was also recommended for environmental clearance by the EAC. BHEL won the tender for Phase-I of the Central Public Sector Enterprise’s (CPSE) Talabira power plant which will have a capacity of 2,400 MW. After Phase-II, the ultra supercritical pit-head power plant will have a total capacity of 3,200 MW.

The EAC also gave its approval for environmental clearance for expansion of an imported coal-based power plants owned by the GMR Group in Odisha. The plant’s existing capacity is 1,050 MW which will be increased with another unit of 350 MW.

Panel returns projects of NTPC, Jindal and JSW Energy

The EAC in its meeting held on June 20, reviewed six thermal power plants proposed for expansion, of which three projects, one each of NTPC Ltd, Jindal Power and JSW Energy failed to get environmental nod from the expert panel.

NTPC Ltd’s 800 MW Stage-II of Darlipali super thermal power project was returned stating that the CPSE must "revise the terms of reference (ToR) amendment application in totality by including all the relevant information with requisite supporting documents". It asked NTPC to submit the revised ToR for fresh consideration by the EAC.

Increasing the capacity of JSW Energy’s 1,800 MW power plant in Champa district, Chhattisgarh to a 3,600 MW plant was also returned citing similar reasons.

A proposal of Jindal Power Ltd to tweak the environmental clearance of its 2,400 MW power plant in Raigarh, Chattisgarh was deferred by the panel.

“Expediting environmental clearances helps avert inordinate delays and ensure timely commissioning of power plants. We will rework the documents and submit again which will take a couple of weeks,” said an NTPC official requesting anonymity.

In FY25, India missed its thermal power addition target by a wide margin. It managed to install 4.53 GW of new coal-fired capacity in FY25 against a target of 15.4 GW, the remaining have slipped into FY26.

The government now expects to add 12.86 GW of thermal capacity in the financial year 2025-26.