50 yrs on, PSPCL to sell defunct machinery at Bathinda plant

CHANDIGARH: Things have come full circle for the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDPT), Bathinda. Fifty years after its foundation stone was laid in 1969 to commemorate the 500th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has put its defunct machinery on sale, as the country celebrates his 550th birth anniversary.

On Friday, the PSPCL has invited expression of interest to dispose of Unit 1 and 2, of 110MW each, asking interested parties to apply before November 29. The disposal notice say all units of the thermal plant are in working condition. Boilers, turbines, coal mills, generators and control systems of both the units have been put up for disposal. The two units were commissioned in 1974 and 1975, respectively.

By its notification of December 21, 2017, the Captain Amarinder Singh government had shut all units of the plant.

“In 1969, on Guru Nanak’s 500th birth anniversary, the then CM Gurnam Singh laid the foundation stone of the thermal plant. The first unit was commissioned in 1974,” said YP Mehra, a retired technical member of the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board.

Mehra, who retired in 1997, told HT, that there was euphoria at that time, as it was the first thermal power plant of the state.

“It’s not good news that the plant is being shut 50 years later, as we celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of the Guru,” he added.

A PSPCL official said, “The thermal plant is spread over 1,000 acre, which includes the lake also. By disposing of the machinery of two of its four units, at least 250 acre of prime land can be retrieved for other uses.”

“Over the past four years, the plant was functional for an average 15 days a year, while incurring a monthly expenditure of ₹1,300 crore. The electricity from the plant costs ₹11.5 per unit as compared to between ₹2.5 and ₹3 per unit elsewhere. Therefore, it is not wise to keep making the huge expenditure,” finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal had said in 2017.

Earlier this year, the PSPCL management had recommended the reuse of the defunct infrastructure of the plant to generate power from paddy stubble.