The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation allotted around 1,200 acres in Pudimadaka village in Visakhapatnam district for the construction of the Pudimadaka Super Thermal Power Project by NTPC Ltd. The project was proposed in 2014, with an investment of INR 26,828 crore. Locals, including fishermen, have opposed the thermal plant as pollutants from the plant pose a health risk to the residents, the environment and marine life in the area. In 2016, following public protests, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board issued a notification to hold a public hearing in August that year. The Human Rights forum [demanded](http://The Human Rights forum demanded that the public hearing be stopped and the project be scrapped. The state General Secretary V.S. Krishna and district president M. Sarat said that the NTPC had already established a 2,000-mega watt plant (NTPC Simhadri) in the area it was contemplating to enhance it by an additional 1,000 mega watts more.) that the public hearing should be stopped and the project should be scrapped. In a press release by the Human Rights Forum, state General Secretary V.S. Krishna and District President M. Sarat said that "the NTPC had already established a 2,000-mega watt plant (NTPC Simhadri) in the area and was contemplating to enhance it by an additional 1,000 mega watt". The Pudimadaka plant would have a capacity of 4,000 mega watt, consuming more than 13 million tonnes of coal per annum. The people living in the area consider it to be a huge strain on the region's natural resources. Krishna and Sarat further said in the press release that "generating 7,000 mega watt of thermal power in one area is a sure recipe for human and ecological disaster." In 2018, the project was shelved at the direction of the Centre. The minister of state for Power and New and Renewable Energy, R.K. Singh, said in response to a Parliament query that "the status of the project depends on the sanction of requisite clearances and coal linkage and date of award of the programme".