Vijayawada, July 1: India's first power plant using IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle) technology is being constructed at Vijayawada thermal power station. Setting the stone for this 125 megawatt (MW) capacity power plant, the Union minister of state for commerce and power, Mr Jairam Ramesh here on Tuesday said the project has major implications for India's energy strategy that has to take seriously the international concerns on global warming arising out of increasing use of coal. The state government has renamed the Vijayawada Thermal Power Station as Dr Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station in recognition of the services rendered by him to the power sector. Announcing this after the unveiling the statue of Dr Narla Tata Rao on the premises of power station, Mr Ramesh said that AP produced two outstanding personalities, K.L. Rao and Narla Tata Rao, the doyen of power sector. "I met Dr Tata Rao in 1983 during a meeting of states electricity board chairmen. When everybody was commenting negatively on the performance of BHEL, he invited them to visit his thermal plants working at 95 per cent plant load factor with the machinery built by BHEL. From then on, I have become his fan. His distinction is he created two state electricity boards for AP and MP," said Mr Ramesh. The Union minister also said that the super critical thermal power plant at Krishnapatnam would be ready by 2012 and announced that NTPC and BHEL are also in an advanced stage of negotiations to set up India's second IGCC technology power plant at Auriya in Uttar Pradesh whose capacity would be around 250 to 300 MW. The minister for energy and coal, Mr Mohammad Ali Shabbir, said that Genco was neglected completely during the Telugu Desam (TD) rule. "We have decided to give every new project to AP Genco only. We are increasing power generation capacity by 9,000 MW in coming days," he said. This project is a joint venture of BHEL and Genco and will be completed in three years. Dr R. Chidambaram, the principal scientific advisor to the Government of India, the minister for finance, Mr K. Rosaiah, the collector, Ms Sailaja Ramaiar, MLCs and family members of Dr Tata Rao were present.