In a key initiative to promote 'Make in India' and give a boost to the government's vision of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', the country's largest power producer NTPC Ltd has thrown open a vast land bank within its power plants to Indian companies interested in setting up industrial parks and manufacturing facilities.

The power producer has invited expression of interest (EoI) from companies and MSMEs for setting up energy intensive manufacturing plants such as bulk chemicals, geopolymer, cooling & heating solutions, aluminum, mineral processing (ceramics, tiles, pottery, brick, glass etc), metallurgical and metal industries (foundries, forging, alloys, heat treatment, steel rerolling, etc) in the industrial parks to be developed at its existing power plants.

The pilots in this regard would be set up in the NTPC Thermal Power plants at Solapur (Maharashtra), Kudgi (Karnataka) and Gadarwara (Madhya Pradesh), a company statement said.

These industrial parks will be subjected to requisite approvals from respective state and central government. NTPC will process these approvals based on responses received in the EoI, the statement added.

The government has announced a slew of economic packages aimed to build self-reliant India by creating conducive investment environment and developing manufacturing hubs.

NTPC's power plants across the country have evolved into economic centres with robust infrastructure system in place.

Capitalising on the economic ecosystem developed over a period of time, NTPC is exploring ideas to improve utilisation of land within its plant locations for enhancing economic activity and further contributing to economic growth of the country.

The initiative will create industrial parks within the power plants which, besides offering advantage of reliable electricity supply at competitive prices, will provide other benefits of readily available infrastructural services like adequate water supply, accessibility through road and rail network, robust connectivity with internet lease lines, accessibility to township, medical facilities and local market along with various testing facilities which will be co-opted on need basis.

As part of the plan, NTPC will enter into separate agreement with prospective entities for allotment of spaces.

With a total installed capacity of 62.9 GW, NTPC Group has 70 power stations comprising of 24 coal, 7 combined cycle gas/liquid fuel, 1 hydro, 13 renewables along with 25 Subsidiary & JV power stations. The group has over 20 GW of capacity under construction, of which 5GW comprises of renewable energy.

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