Tata Mundra Project (Coastal Gujarat Power Limited – CGPL – a subsidiary of Tata Power), is a 4,000 megawatt power plant developed on over 1250 hectares of land near the village Tunda-Wand, in Kutch district (India’s largest district with an area of 45,652 km2) of Gujarat state.
A consortium of Banks including International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Export-Import Bank of Korea, Korea Export Insurance Corporation, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), BNP Paribas and domestic banks/institutions like State Bank of India, the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd., Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd., Oriental Bank of Commerce, Vijaya Bank, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Travancore, and State Bank of Indore financed the project. IFC approved this project in 2007.
The northern shore/coast of the Gulf of Kutch – where Mundra is located – has seen large-scale industrialization in over little more than the last decade. There is a very large Special Economic Zone (SEZ) created by the Adani Group, as well as the largest private sector port with coal terminals and other facilities by the same industrial house. The same group is also building a huge 4,620 MW coal-based thermal power plant within the SEZ area, several units of which are already operational.
In little more than a decade or so, this largely rural but thriving local economy – fishing, salt-making, animal husbandry, and agriculture and horticulture being the four primary economic activities – has been subjected to huge amounts of pollution, land-use change, displacements, denial of traditional rights, and other impacts.
Read the full update here: Tata Mundra: A Project Awaiting Settlement