Kalisindh Super Thermal Power Station is located at –
- (1)Baran
- (2)Jhalawar
- (3)Dungarpur
- (4)Banswara
Answer
Why
Correct — option (2), Jhalawar.
The Kalisindh Super Thermal Power Project is in Jhalawar district. The archived project page of Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam (RVUN) places its site in Nimoda, Undal, Motipura, Singharia and Devri villages of Jhalarapatan tehsil, about 12 km from Jhalawar town.
The project is coal-based, with a capacity of 1,200 MW in two 600 MW units. RVUN's page gives its water source as a dam on the Kalisindh river near Bhanwarasi village.
The station is named after that river. Per the same RVUN page, the Kalisindh enters Rajasthan from Madhya Pradesh near Binda and joins the Chambal near Nanera in Kota district.
Rajasthan's Economic Review 2022-23 lists an 800 MW unit-3 at Kalisindh, with units 7 and 8 at Chhabra, among new coal-based thermal units then under process.
Kalisindh thermal is in Jhalawar; Chhabra thermal is in neighbouring Baran.
Why the others are wrong
- (1)Baran — Baran has a different coal-fired plant, the Chhabra Thermal Power Plant, at Chowki Motipura in Chhabra tehsil, as its Wikipedia entry records, citing RVUN.
Baran and Jhalawar are neighbouring Hadoti districts, each with a thermal plant, so the region alone does not decide which plant is where.
- (3)Dungarpur — Dungarpur is in the far south, in the Mahi and Som basin. The Kalisindh river, which feeds the station, has its catchment in Jhalawar and Kota districts, per RVUN.
The project's site villages are in Jhalarapatan tehsil of Jhalawar, not in Dungarpur.
- (4)Banswara — Banswara's Mahi project is a water-power site: the Banswara District Gazetteer describes a hydel channel planned to generate power for Banswara and Dungarpur districts, and RVUN's archived website lists Mahi among its hydel plants. That is not a coal-fired thermal station.
The Kalisindh station's water source, per RVUN, is a dam on the Kalisindh river.
Concept
Rajasthan draws electricity from several kinds of source. Its Economic Review 2022-23 names the main ones as thermal, hydel, wind, biomass, captive, inter-state partnership and atomic power projects.
RVUN's archived website lists Kota, Suratgarh, Giral, Chhabra and Kalisindh among its thermal plants, and Mahi among its hydel plants.
The Kalisindh project is coal-based: 1,200 MW in two 600 MW units, at a site in Jhalarapatan tehsil of Jhalawar district, with a dam on the Kalisindh near Bhanwarasi as its water source, per RVUN.
Its coal was to come from captive coal blocks in Chhattisgarh that the Ministry of Coal allotted to RVUN.
RPSC's 2023 Prelims syllabus lists "Power Resources- Conventional & Non-Conventional" under the Geography of Rajasthan. Thermal power stations and their districts fall under that head.
Thermal plants make up most of the state-owned and shared capacity. Table 5.1 of the Economic Review 2022-23 gives state-owned and shared thermal capacity as 7,830 MW in 2022-23 (up to November 2022), against 1,017.29 MW of hydel.
A thermal plant needs coal, water and a site. RVUN records that a Central Electricity Authority site selection committee found the Nimoda area of Jhalawar techno-economically feasible for the Kalisindh project.
Key facts
- Kalisindh Super Thermal Power Project: 1,200 MW (2 × 600 MW), coal-based, in Jhalarapatan tehsil of Jhalawar district (RVUN).
- Its site covers Nimoda, Undal, Motipura, Singharia and Devri villages, about 12 km from Jhalawar town.
- RVUN gives the project's water source as a dam on the Kalisindh river near Bhanwarasi village.
- The Kalisindh river enters Rajasthan from Madhya Pradesh near Binda and joins the Chambal near Nanera, Kota district (RVUN).
- Rajasthan's Economic Review 2022-23 lists an 800 MW unit-3 at Kalisindh among new coal-based units under process.
Kalisindh from RVUN's archived project page; Chhabra from its Wikipedia entry citing RVUN; Mahi from the Banswara District Gazetteer and RVUN's archived plant list.
Study next
Common traps
- Motipura appears twice: among Kalisindh's site villages in Jhalawar, and in Chowki Motipura, the Chhabra plant's village in Baran.
- Baran and Jhalawar are neighbouring Hadoti districts, each with a thermal plant. Tie each plant to its own district.
- The station is named after a river, not a district. The Kalisindh flows through Jhalawar and Kota; the station is in Jhalawar.
A question can name a power station and ask for its district, as this one does.
A question can also ask which station has the highest installed capacity, whether a plant runs on coal, lignite, gas or water, or which projects Rajasthan shares with other states.
Related PYQs
UnlockIAS will link similar questions from RAS Pre 2018, 2016 and 2013 here once those papers are published on this site.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Chhabra Thermal Power Plant of Rajasthan is located in which district ?
- (a)Baran
- (b)Jhalawar
- (c)Kota
- (d)Bundi
Answer(1) — The plant is at Chowki Motipura in Chhabra tehsil of Baran district. Option (2), Jhalawar, has the Kalisindh Super Thermal Power Project. Option (3), Kota, has the Kota thermal station in RVUN's plant list. Option (4), Bundi, is another Hadoti district but not the plant's site. - practice — not a real PYQ
Water for the Kalisindh Super Thermal Power Project is drawn from a dam on which river ?
- (a)Kalisindh
- (b)Chambal
- (c)Mahi
- (d)Luni
Answer(1) — RVUN records a dam on the Kalisindh near Bhanwarasi village as the source. Option (2), the Chambal, is the river the Kalisindh joins near Nanera. Option (3), the Mahi, feeds the Mahi Bajaj Sagar dam in Banswara. Option (4), the Luni, drains towards the Gulf of Kutch.