Unfinished railway line works likely to delay Yadari plant commissioning

Until the railway line is completed, coal cannot arrive at the plant site, which in turn is likely to delay the commissioning of the two units.

Hyderabad: The State government’s plan to commission two units of the 5×800 megawatt Yadadri Thermal Power Station (YTPS) project being constructed in Dameracharla of Nalgonda by the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited (TSGENCO) in October first week is unlikely to happen as the railway line works have not been completed yet. Until the railway line is completed, coal cannot arrive at the plant site, which in turn is likely to delay the commissioning of the two units.

According to sources, the signaling system at the Vishnupuram railway station was supposed to be completed by October 1, but due to repair work on the Balharshah-Kazipet-Vijayawada railway line, some trains were diverted on the Bibinagar-Nadikudi route, due to which the work of changing the signaling system at Vishnupuram was postponed to October 9 and 10. Due to this, there is a delay in running the goods train to Yadadri Power Station from Janpahad to Vishnupuram railway line, sources said.

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Moreover, as the Genco was confident of completing the railway line works by September end, no arrangements were made to transport coal through trucks from the Singareni mines in Mandamarri, Bellampally, Ramagundam and Kothagudem areas. Now Genco has to wait for the completion of the railway line to commission the two units of the plant. It is learnt that the two units would start functioning by the end of the month. Once power generation starts in the plant, which was initiated by the previous BRS government, the State will receive about two crore units of electricity per day.

As part of testing the readiness for full production of power, two boiler units were ‘fired’ in May. It would take about five to six months before all the testing was completed to ensure every section of the two 800 MW units were working in synchrony, officials said, adding that once that was done, Unit I and Unit II would be ready for commercial production of thermal power.

The Genco has set a deadline for the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), which is executing the project, to commission two units of Stage I by October and the three units of Stage II by March, 2025. Although all the five units should have been commissioned by October last year, there was time overrun for all the five units. As the construction of the plant has already been delayed for more than three years, after private organisations approached the National Green Tribunal, Genco is worried that further delays could cause more financial losses.

The project, when completed, is expected to cost around Rs.34,542 crore.