The Ghatampur Thermal Power Project is located at

Correct — B, Uttar Pradesh. The Ghatampur Thermal Power Project stands at Ghatampur in Kanpur Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, in the state's south-western Bundelkhand fringe. It is a supercritical coal-fired station of three 660 MW units, built by Neyveli Uttar Pradesh Power Limited, a joint venture between the central public-sector NLC India Limited and the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam. The overwhelming share of its power is contracted to Uttar Pradesh, which is why the project was located in the consuming state rather than at the coalfield.

• (a)Bihar — Bihar has central-sector thermal capacity at Barh, Nabinagar and Kahalgaon, but nothing called Ghatampur; the name belongs to a tehsil of Kanpur Nagar district.
• (c)Madhya Pradesh — Madhya Pradesh has large stations at Singrauli, Vindhyachal and Sasan. Its proximity to the Bundelkhand region makes this the most tempting wrong answer, but the district line falls on the Uttar Pradesh side.
• (d)Gujarat — Gujarat's major thermal capacity is on the coast — Mundra, Ukai, Sikka — and is built around imported coal and gas rather than the Singrauli-belt supply that feeds Ghatampur.

Thermal power stations in India are sited either at the pithead, close to the coal, or at the load centre, close to the consumers, and the choice turns on whether it is cheaper to move coal or to move electricity. Ghatampur is a load-centre station: it sits in the state that buys almost all its output, drawing coal by rail. It is also a joint venture of the kind that has become common in the sector, pairing a central generating company with a state utility so that the state secures long-term supply while the centre brings capital and technical capacity.

Location items on power projects are best answered by placing the place-name rather than the project. Ghatampur is a tehsil and town of Kanpur Nagar district, and Kanpur is unambiguously Uttar Pradesh; once the place is located, the project follows. The distractor set is built around the plant's Bundelkhand setting, which straddles Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, so a candidate who remembers only 'Bundelkhand' can be pulled across the border. A second useful cue is the developer's own name, Neyveli Uttar Pradesh Power Limited, which carries the state in it.

• The Ghatampur Thermal Power Project is at Ghatampur, Kanpur Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh.
• It is designed as three units of 660 MW each, using supercritical technology.
• The developer is Neyveli Uttar Pradesh Power Limited, a joint venture of NLC India and the Uttar Pradesh state generation company.
• Most of its output is contracted to Uttar Pradesh, making it a load-centre rather than pithead station.
• Supercritical units run at higher steam pressure and temperature, giving better efficiency and lower emissions per unit than subcritical plants.

• Placing a Bundelkhand-fringe project in Madhya Pradesh because the region straddles two states.
• Assuming a station named after a small town must be a state-sector project alone.
• Confusing a station's installed capacity with the share of its power contracted to one state.

Asked as a plain location-recall item on a recent large power project — the kind that rewards knowing the district a town belongs to.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Ghatampur Thermal Power Project is being developed by a joint venture involving which central public sector company?

  • (a)NTPC Limited
  • (b)NLC India Limited
  • (c)Damodar Valley Corporation
  • (d)SJVN Limited

  Answer(b) NLC India Limited — partnered with the Uttar Pradesh state generation company as Neyveli Uttar Pradesh Power Limited.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  A thermal power station built close to its consumers rather than to the coalfield is described as

  • (a)a pithead station
  • (b)a load-centre station
  • (c)a peaking station
  • (d)a captive station

  Answer(b) a load-centre station — sited where the demand is, with coal transported to it.