New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS): The government has finalised the sites for two more ultra mega power projects, one in Tamil Nadu and the other in Andhra Pradesh, and plans seven more in consultations with the respective state governments.

"The site for setting up one ultra-mega power project in Tamil Nadu has been finalised at Cheyyur in Kanchipuram district and for a second in Andhra Pradesh at Nayunipalli village in Prakasham district," said Minister of State for Power K.C. Venugopal.

"The other ultra-mega power projects proposed are in Karnataka and Maharashtra, two more projects each in Orissa and one additional project each in Gujarat, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu," the minister told parliament last week.

These are in addition to two such projects at Sarguja in Chhattisgarh and Bedabahal in Orissa that are in the bidding process.

The government has so far awarded four coal-based ultra-mega power projects, each with a capacity of about 4,000 megawatts, to private developers and these are under different stages of implementation.

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power is developing three of them at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Tilaiya in Jharkhand, while the Tata Group is working on one at Mundra in Gujarat.

Development of these large power projects has been identified as a thrust area by the government. As per estimates, each of these projects will produce around 4,000 MW of power and involve an estimated investment of about Rs.16,000 crore.