Innovative NTPC project for Korba tribal village

     Korba, April 20, 2012: The Central PSU NTPC has developed an innovative model to supply electricity to a tribal village in Korba district of Chhattisgarh, officials said today.

     With an investment of about Rs one crore a mini-hydro project under Distributed Generation (DG) scheme was taken up by NTPC to light up Nakkiya, tribal village in Korba district, NTPC officials said.

     Nakkiya, a tribal hamlet with 82 households having over 410 population, located 75-km from here, was all set to see a new world as a 2×20 kilo watt micro hydel project is commissioned by NTPC Korba unit to light up the village in the absence of connectivity to the grid.

     This was the first of its kind venture by the company tapping the natural resource readily available at the site with an objective to electrify the village which has long been devoid of the basic facility, according to General Manager NTPC Korba S K Roy.

     The mini-hydro project, costing approximately Rs one crore was the first such project under Distributed Generation (DG) scheme taken up by NTPC and was being executed through Noida-based M/s TPSC India Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toshiba Plant System and Services Corporation, Japan.

     The project has been financed jointly by NTPC Foundation and Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, in a bid to provide electricity to the far-flung villages.

     While the project has been commissioned on March 27, 2012 following construction of two dams on Lamti Nala and a power house and an approach road with the help of representatives from the agency as well as the villagers, work on cabling and erection of electrical poles are going on fast, said DGM (MTP & DDG), NTPC Korba, K Karunakaran, who has been overseeing the project.

     Meanwhile, a village-level energy committee has been formed and registered as a society by the villagers in order to smoothly operate the unit.

     NTPC was committed to taking such initiatives, which should benefit the communities and leave a lasting impression in their mind for such social steps taken up by the company, DGM (Human Resources) at NTPC Korba K Liangaih, who is also looking after Corporate Social Responsibility at the station, said.