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Power corp to auction thermal plant land to repay debt
Shelves approved plan to set up two units
Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 11
Shelving its ‘approved in principle’ plan to set up two units of 250 MW each on the premises of existing local Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP), the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has decided to sell its property on prime land here to reduce its mounting debt.

As per documents available with The Tribune, the PSPCL has dropped the plan to set up two units of 250 MW each at the GNDTP and a decision to sell its property measuring about 130 acres in the recent past.

Though PSPCL authorities claimed that plan to set up two 250 MW units in GNDTP was dropped due to fact that it was not feasible, eyebrows are being raised by a large section of its employees that this action had been taken to extend favours to some real estate businessmen who was trying to grab the land at throwaway prices.

The plan to set up the two units was approved on June 23, 2008. Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and senior functionaries of the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) had issued press statements in connection with the approval of the plan under the capacity addition programme of the GNDTP.

The PSPCL functionaries have identified three pieces of land measuring 50 acres, 50 acres and 30 acres respectively situated in the plant area, C-compound area and D-block of residential colony of the GNDTP. The two pieces of land that measure 50 acres each are situated on the Bathinda-Malout national highway.

HS Bedi, President, PSEB Engineers Association, said that instead of disposing of the lands, the PSPCL authorities must set up thermal plants over the same by using latest technology.

KD Chaudhary, Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD), PSPCL, said that decision to sell the land was taken after PSPCL came to know that the Ministry of Environment might not give permission to set up the units as GNDTP had already come into the municipal limits of the city.

When asked whether the PSPCL had approached the Ministry of Environment before shelving the plan, he said that there had been precedents where such proposals had been declined by the ministry and hence, there was no need to approach the ministry in connection with this project.

He said that the land would be sold in a public auction to earn maximum money which would be used to reduce the debt of PSPCL, which was around Rs 20,000 crore.

He said that the PSPCL was in the process of identifying more such unused properties.