Assam CM lays foundation for Adani power plant on land cleared of 1,400 Muslim families

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday laid the foundation stone for a 3,200 MW thermal power plant being developed by Adani Power Limited in Dhubri district.

The project is coming up on land where the homes of more than 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families were demolished by the Assam government in July 2025, according to Indian digital news site Scroll.

The site covers Charuabakhra, Chirakuta I and II and Santoshpur villages under the Chapar revenue circle.

The families had been living on nearly 1,157 acres of government land before their homes were demolished to clear the area for the proposed power project.

The land was initially allotted to the state-run Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, which later allocated it to Adani Power Limited for the project.

According to Scroll, nearly 10,000 Bengali-origin Muslims were displaced by the demolitions. Many of them had reportedly lived in the area for between three and four decades.

A resident told Scroll at the time that many of those affected were “erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra”.

Speaking at the foundation ceremony on Sunday, Sarma described the project as Assam’s “biggest-ever power project” and said it would produce enough electricity to meet the state’s entire power requirements.

The Adani Group said in a statement that the project is expected to create up to 20,000 jobs during construction and around 5,000 jobs after becoming operational.

Sarma had earlier said the Adani Group had committed to investments worth Rs 50,000 crore, proposed during a business summit held in Assam in February.

On July 14, an Expert Appraisal Committee under the Union environment ministry recommended environmental clearance for Adani Power Limited’s proposed coal-based thermal power plant.

In its application seeking environmental clearance, the company stated that there were no habitations at the project site and, as a result, no rehabilitation or resettlement claims were involved.

Residents affected by the evictions, however, have challenged that claim.

Abdur Rashid Sheikh, a resident, told Scroll that the site had already been cleared through “forceful eviction drives”, leaving 1,400 families without homes or rehabilitation and resettlement.

“Apart from the 3,500 bighas of government land that was taken forcibly, there were 1,700 bighas of land where people with land titles lived that were also taken,” Sheikh said.

“About 50% of the landowners with land titles have not received compensation yet though their paperwork is done.”

The district authorities had set aside 300 bighas in Baizar Alga village for the rehabilitation of those affected and allocated Rs 50,000 as one-time assistance to help them transport their belongings.

Some residents, however, said they were reluctant to relocate there as the proposed rehabilitation site is a low-lying riverine area in the middle of the Brahmaputra.

Minutes of a district-level land advisory meeting held on April 2 show that the district administration had submitted a proposal on March 30, 2025, to convert village grazing land for the power project.

The land, classified as village grazing land, is a category of government land designated for cattle grazing.

The district administration subsequently issued eviction notices and demolished the houses in the area.

Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Assam in 2016, several demolition drives have been carried out across the state, mostly in areas populated by Bengali-speaking Muslims.

At least eight Muslims have been shot dead during eviction drives carried out since 2016.