PGCIL urged to speed up completion of power project

LUCKNOW: Worried over the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) not being able to avail full power being generated at the Bajaj group’s Lalitpur thermal plant due to an inadequate transmission network, the state government has asked the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) to advance completion of the Lalitpur-Agra transmission line and associated sub stations.

Principal secretary, energy, and UPPCL chairman Sanjay Agrawal on Monday held a meeting with PGCIL executive director Prabhakar Singh to discuss the need for early completion of the project.

As per the contract, the PGCIL has the target of constructing a 765 kv transmission line between Lalitpur and Agra and setting up three associated transmission sub stations in Agra and Mathura by June 2016. “However, we told the PGCIL to speed up the work so that the system was in place by March-April,” UP Power Transmission Corporation (UPPTCL) managing director Vishal Chauhan, who also attended the Monday meeting, told HT.

He said the work had so far progressed satisfactorily and there was every possibility of the project being ready before June, 2016. “The only hindrance left is the forest clearance from Madhya Pradesh as a part of the transmission line has to pass though the forests of that state,” Chauhan said adding, “But we expect the clearance very soon.”

UPPTCL has planned transmission lines & substations to evacuate power from Lalitpur generating station and wheel the same to diverse load centers concentrated mainly in Southern & Western part of Uttar Pradesh. For this, the PGCIL has been given the contract for creation of new 765kv & 400kv substation & associated transmission lines and also corresponding increase in 220kv & 132kv downstream network.

The proposed transmission scheme under this package consists of construction of 765/400 kv substation at Agra & associated 765 kv lines to evacuate power from Lalitpur TPS & other upcoming thermal power station to Agra in future. The scheme also consists of 400 kv substation at Agra (South) & Mathura (Manth) & associated lines for wheeling of power from 765 kv s/s Agra to other southern & western part of the state.

Sources said Bajaj’s Lalitpur plant-first was already generating 600 mw power while the second unit may come in June but the lack of an adequate transmission system was not allowing the UPPCL to draw the full power from the plant.