Rosa (Shahjahanpur), Dec 28 (IANS) One of the four 300 MW-capacity units of a thermal power plant developed by Reliance Power here was commissioned here Monday morning.

The second 300 MW-unit will be commissioned by the end of January, and will be followed by the other two 300 MW-units by March 2012. The 1,200-MW plant at Roja, is located about 175 km from Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow.

'In fact, March 2012 would mark the beginning of a new era in the history of Reliance Power as we hope to simultaneously commission two other power projects -- a 600-MW plant in Nagpur and a 1,300-MW plant at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh,' said Reliance Power chief executive officer J.P. Chalasani.

Significantly, the Rs.6,000-crore Rosa project has not only been touted as the largest single investment by any private player in this state, but it is also the first Reliance Power plant to start generation.

'It is a matter of pride for us to have moved well ahead of our schedule and instead of April 2010, we have succeeded in taking off today, the 77th birth anniversary of our founder Dhirubhai Ambani,' Chalasani said.

'After taking over the project in 2007, we put it on the fast track, expeditiously acquired land, signed the PPA (power purchase agreement), obtained all statutory and regulatory clearances and approvals, and signed coal supply and transportation agreements.'

According to him, 'once the entire plant is commissioned, it will enable us to make an annual contribution of 9,000 million units to Uttar Pradesh, light up as many as four million homes, besides helping in bringing down load-shedding by at least 25 percent'.

The project is expected to provide permanent direct employment to 300 people.

'However, it has tremendous potential to generate a lot of indirect employment for which preference would be given to local people,' said Chalasani.