Works yet to be completed
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 11
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal dedicated Guru Hargobind Thermal Power Plant’s (GHTP) unit IV of stage-II to the nation today, but if sources are to be believed, many aspects of the project are incomplete.

GHTP sources informed elevation in boilers, ash evacuation, filter, cold air ventilation, raw water pre-treatment plant, coal belt link between stage-I and stage-II, fire detecting and fighting system, dust extraction and suppression, were still to be put in place.

Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) chairman HS Brar, however, said, he never took anything in a negative way. “We must be happy that after a long delay, the unit is now going to be dedicated to the nation,” he said.

He said the delay was on part of BHEL and they had even pulled them up for this. As far as incompletion of the project was concerned, the construction company would not be spared before getting everything in place, he added.

GHTP stage-II is going to be completed after 11 years of completion of its stage-I in 1998, which cost the PSEB huge loss.

As per information received, it was earlier decided to award the contract for supply of only main plant equipment to BHEL and formalities were completed in 2002. The PSEB had tied up loans by that time, but refusal by the state government to sign the counter guarantee stalled the project. After wasting more than 16 months in finalising strategies, it was decided in December 2003 that the project should be executed by the PSEB. Then it was to hand over the execution on turnkey basis to BHEL, but it cost the state dearly.

The then CM Amarinder Singh had laid the stone on February 28, 2005, and construction by BHEL began in March. As per original schedule, the unit II, after stabilisation and commercial run, was to be handed over to the PSEB by March 31, 2007.