Slow pace of work at Mukerian Thermal Plant irks engineers
Umesh Dewan
Tribune News Service

Patiala, November 26
The PSEB Engineers’ Association is unhappy with the pace at which work on the 1320-MW Mukerian Thermal Plant is progressing.

It would cost Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) Rs 8,000 crores to construct the thermal plant in the Mukeria town of the Hoshiarpur district.

PSPCL would soon be inviting tenders to appoint a consultant for the preparation of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the project.

Association general secretary Sanjeev Sood said that the Power Corporation has failed to expedite work on the project despite their several requests to do so. “Power Corporation needs to immediately strengthen its team of officers and thermal experts at Mukerian. Until and unless a proper thermal design team is in place, the conceptualisation of the project would not be speedy,” he added.

Power Corporation officials said the tendering process would be completed within three months and subsequently the sanctioned consultancy firm would begin the preliminary groundwork for the project.

Though the proposal for the Mukerian Thermal Plant project was mooted by PSPCL in early 2011, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal approved it in October 2011.

However, even after the CM’s approval, it took almost a year to initiate the preliminary work of the project. Speaking to The Tribune, PSPCL Director (Generation) GS Chhabra said that once the consultant was appointed, it would prepare the outline of the entire project.

Power Corporation authorities said it would take one and half to two-years to prepare the DPR and obtain all the mandatory clearances. Subsequently, it would take another two years for its execution. “We can expect the Mukerian project to be operational in the next four years,” said authorities.

For a while, PSEB Engineers’ Association and PSPCL officials have been demanding that instead of awarding power projects to private companies, the state should augment its power generation capacity by setting up thermal plants through a government institution such as the PSPCL. This time, the government is undertaking the project. Power Finance Corporation would bear 90 per cent of the project cost and PSPCL the rest.

Chhabra said that besides the preparation of the DPR, the consultant firm would conduct the preliminary research, study area’s geology, the project’s environmental impact and assist the PSPCL in getting clearances from different departments. “The project would most likely come up in the villages near Hajipur in Mukerian town for which over 900 acres of land would have to be acquired,” he said.

The track record of the Punjab government in adding power generation capacity has not been good. In the last decade, it has only added 500-MW of power generation through two units of 250-MW capacity each at Lehra Mohabbat in 2008. After the commissioning of the two units, each of 210-MW capacity of the Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Plant in year 1998, two more units each of 250-MW at Lehra.