NDA (II) 2016 GAT Q126: Match List I with List II and select the correct answer

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2016 GAT Q126?

C. Correct — C, 2 1 4 3. Sasan is in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, so A goes with 2. Mundra is on the Kutch coast of Gujarat, so B goes with 1. Tilaiya is in Koderma district of Jharkhand, so C goes with 4. Krishnapatnam, which the booklet prints as 'Krishnapattam', is the port town in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, so D goes with 3. The fastest way in is to fix the two projects that were actually built — Sasan in Madhya Pradesh and Mundra in Gujarat — because only one code pairs A with 2 and B with 1 at the same time.

NDA (II) 2016 General Ability Test · Question 126 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

Match List I with List II and select the correct answer using the code given below the Lists : List I List II (Ultra mega power project at different stages of development) (State) A. Sasan 1. Gujarat B. Mundra 2. Madhya Pradesh C. Tilaiya 3. Andhra Pradesh D. Krishnapattam 4. Jharkhand Code : A B C D

(a)2 4 1 3
(b)3 4 1 2
(c)2 1 4 3
(d)3 1 4 2

Answer

Why

Correct — C, 2 1 4 3. Sasan is in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, so A goes with 2. Mundra is on the Kutch coast of Gujarat, so B goes with 1. Tilaiya is in Koderma district of Jharkhand, so C goes with 4. Krishnapatnam, which the booklet prints as 'Krishnapattam', is the port town in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, so D goes with 3. The fastest way in is to fix the two projects that were actually built — Sasan in Madhya Pradesh and Mundra in Gujarat — because only one code pairs A with 2 and B with 1 at the same time.

Why the others are wrong

(a)2 4 1 3 — Gets Sasan and Krishnapatnam right but swaps the middle pair, sending Mundra to Jharkhand and Tilaiya to Gujarat. Mundra is a coastal, imported-coal station that only makes sense on a seaboard, and Jharkhand has no coast.
(b)3 4 1 2 — Puts Sasan in Andhra Pradesh and Krishnapatnam in Madhya Pradesh, which inverts the very pair the question is testing. Sasan sits on the Moher and Amlohri coal blocks of the Singrauli belt, which is Madhya Pradesh, and Krishnapatnam is a well-known Andhra port.
(d)3 1 4 2 — Correctly matches Mundra with Gujarat and Tilaiya with Jharkhand, but again exchanges Sasan and Krishnapatnam between Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It is the near-miss designed for a candidate who knows the two eastern projects and guesses the rest.

Concept

Ultra Mega Power Projects are 4,000 MW-class coal-fired stations that the Union government began awarding from 2005-06 to add bulk capacity quickly. Power Finance Corporation acted as the nodal agency: it floated a shell company for each site, obtained the land, coal linkage or captive block and clearances, and then handed the shell over to whichever developer quoted the lowest tariff in competitive bidding. Sites were of two kinds — pit-head projects sitting on a domestic coal block, and coastal projects designed to run on imported coal.

The stem's own phrase, 'at different stages of development', is the honest description: of the four names listed, only two ever generated electricity. Sasan (6 x 660 MW, Reliance Power) and Mundra (5 x 800 MW, Tata Power's Coastal Gujarat Power) were commissioned; Tilaiya was awarded to Reliance Power and later abandoned, and Krishnapatnam stalled after imported-coal prices moved against the winning tariff. For the matching itself, the location logic is enough — a pit-head name belongs to a coalfield state and a port name belongs to a coastal state.

Key facts

Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project, 3,960 MW, is in Singrauli district, Madhya Pradesh, and is a pit-head plant fed by a captive coal block.
Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project, 4,000 MW, is in Kutch district, Gujarat, and was built to run on imported coal landed at Mundra port.
Tilaiya was awarded in Jharkhand and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh; neither was commissioned, and the developer walked away from Tilaiya.
Power Finance Corporation is the nodal agency for the scheme, and each project is awarded through tariff-based competitive bidding rather than by allotment.

The four Ultra Mega Power Projects in the question

A. Sasan→Madhya Pradesh (2) — Singrauli coalfield, pit-head, 3,960 MW, built and running

B. Mundra→Gujarat (1) — Kutch coast, imported coal through Mundra port, 4,000 MW, built and running

C. Tilaiya→Jharkhand (4) — awarded, then surrendered by the developer, never commissioned

D. Krishnapattam→Andhra Pradesh (3) — coastal site near Nellore, stalled over imported-coal costs

Reading down the code, A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3 gives 2 1 4 3, which is option (c).

Study next

Ultra Mega Power Projects — the bidding model, the nodal role of Power Finance Corporation, and why several sites lapsedPit-head against coastal thermal siting, and the coal linkage question behind eachIndia's major coalfields — Singrauli, Jharia, Bokaro, Raniganj, Korba, Talcher — and the states they lie inMajor thermal, hydro and nuclear stations of India matched to their states, a standing NDA and CSE favouriteElectricity Act 2003 and tariff-based competitive bidding for generation capacity

Common traps

Assuming every listed project is operational — the stem says 'at different stages of development' precisely because two of these four were never built.
Confusing Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh with Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu or with the Krishna river's Karnataka reaches.
Placing Singrauli in Uttar Pradesh alone; the coalfield straddles the border and the Sasan project itself lies in Madhya Pradesh.

NDA repeatedly asks project-to-state and project-to-river matching for power and irrigation schemes, and the reliable shortcut is to anchor the two names you are surest of and eliminate every code that contradicts them.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2003_GS1_Q1422003Open & attempt →

The thermal power plant of Bokaro is located in

(a) Bihar
(b) Chhattisgarh
(c) Jharkhand
(d) Orissa

Answer(c) Jharkhand

The same power-station-to-state recall, asked as a single pair rather than a code. It also carries the Bihar and Jharkhand trap that the Tilaiya row in this NDA item quietly depends on.

NDA_GAT_2020_I_II_Q1182020Open & attempt →

Bagalihar, Dulhasti and Salal hydro power projects have been developed on which of the following rivers?

(a) Chenab and Jhelum
(b) Chenab and Indus
(c) Ravi
(d) Chenab only

Answer(d) Chenab only

Same drill on the hydro side — three named projects, one geographical anchor to place them on. Solving the two together builds the project-to-place map NDA keeps returning to.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project draws its coal from a captive block in which coalfield?
- (a)Jharia
- (b)Singrauli
- (c)Talcher
- (d)Raniganj
Answer(b) Singrauli — Sasan is a pit-head station on the Moher and Amlohri blocks of the Singrauli coalfield in Madhya Pradesh.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following Ultra Mega Power Projects was designed to run on imported coal landed at a port next to the plant?
- (a)Sasan
- (b)Tilaiya
- (c)Mundra
- (d)Talabira
Answer(c) Mundra — it stands on the Kutch coast of Gujarat beside Mundra port, unlike the pit-head projects that sit on a coal block.