Jhajjar Thermal Plant may not supply power for Common Wealth Games
VINOD KUMAR GUPTA Punjab Newsline
Friday, 26 March 2010
CHANDIGARH: The count down for the start of Common Wealth Games has begun and with less than 200 days to start the games Indira Gandhi Super thermal Plant Jhajjar may not keep its date to supply power the games.

1500 MW project was conceived by Government of India as a joint venture between NTPC Delhi Government and Haryana. Three units of 500 MW each were to start operation before the start of common wealth games.

The commissioning of 3 X 500 MW Jhajjar thermal plant has been delayed mainly due to failure of BHEL to supply the critical equipment in agreed time schedule. As per schedule first 500 MW unit of project is due for commissioning in April 2010. The other two units are to follow after a gap of three months each. All the three units are supposed to be commissioned by October 10 well before the start of commonwealth games.

The first unit of thermal plant is not likely to start generation at full load before the start of commonwealth games. The second unit can be expected anytime after February 2011 and there is no time schedule for the third unit.

BHEL has now proposed the delivery of IP turbine and LP rotor for unit 2 in June 2010 and July 2010 respectively. The tentative schedules for IP turbine and Generator for third unit are August and December 2010 respectively. The delivery schedule indicates that second and third units can not come in this calendar year.

Jhajjar thermal plant is a joint venture of NTPC, Delhi and Haryana costing about 7892 crores. The equity participation by Haryana in the project is 25 percent and while its energy share is 750 MW. NTPC is having 50 percent equity share and while Delhi has 25 percent

It may be mentioned that track record of BHEL is very poor in supplying the main equipments for thermal plants. BHEL continues to rack up lapses in the supply and erection of equipment for various projects in India, it should be reasonable to assume that NTPC would not be able to fully commission even one unit at Jhajjar thermal plant.