Indian Express
Engineers’ body pooh-poohs Sukhbir’s claim on power
Raakhi Jagga
Saturday , May 30, 2009, Ludhiana:

The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Engineers Association today poo-poohed Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s claims that upcoming power projects would render the state free from power shortage in coming few years, advising the latter needs to do a realty check.

Interestingly, the members said the delay was occuring because these projects had been handed over to private players. They said that for last 10 years there was no capacity addition whatsoever and the position was not going to change even in the next four years. “All this is all due to the government’s dependence on private sector for capacity addition,” they said.

“Conceived 10 years ago, Goindwal plant has not seen the light of the day so far due to some tangle between GVK company (the private player) and State Appellate Authority. The cost of the project has balooned from Rs 1,800 crore to Rs 2,980 crore,” said HS Bedi, president of PSEB Engineers Association. He said even the progress of Talwandi Sabo power plant, which was inaugurated with great fanfare, was also limited to the purchase of land only, adding that Sterlite company was in fact trying to wriggle out of the contract. It may be mentioned that Talwandi Sabo is a 1980 MW power project with a total cost of Rs 13,000 crores.