Punjab Newsline
Lehra Mohabatt stage II units stop generation
VINOD KUMAR GUPTA
Friday, 02 January 2009
BHATINDA: 250 Mega watt unit 4 of Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant stopped generation on last Tuesday due to jamming of one of its air pre heaters while unit no. 3 is already closed by BHEL to complete the pending works.

The closure of two units at Lehra Mohabatt thermal plant has increased the daily power shortage to 130 lakh units the power availability in the state has been reduced to 788 lakh units against demand of 920 lakh units.

According to sources air pre heater of unit no. 4 stopped rotating due problem in its gear box. This unit has not been yet handed over to PSEB by BHEL due to number of pending works. A senior engineer told Punjab News Line that BHEL did not attended the fault in the air pre heater gear box in spite of repeated calls from PSEB. The closure of unit has lead to daily loss of 60 lakh units.

According to sources it may take 7 days to restart the unit. . It may be added that 250 MW unit 3 was already under shutdown since December 27 last to enable the BHEL to complete pending works. At present there is no generation from Lehra Mohabatt stage 2units causing daily loss of 120 lac units.
Lehra Mohabatt stage 2 was in news due to its delayed completion By BHEL. Unit 3 which was to be scheduled to be handed over to PSEB by BHEL after its completion by Dec 2006 and unit 4 by March 2007 .Although unit 3 was handed over to PSEB in Oct 2008 for running the unit but complete handing over of unit is still pending due to incomplete works.