L&T gets nod to set up thermal plant
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 14
The 1,320 MW Rajpura thermal plant will be set up by the Larsen & Tubro (L&T). Sources said a team of senior executives of the L&T met the senior officials, including chief secetary SC Aggarwal today.

The sources said the state government had told the company that it would like to sign a power purchase agreement with it by January 19. The L&T had offered to provide power at Rs 2.89 per unit. It would take 36 months to set up the plant. Earlier, a company had offered to provide power at Rs 3.30 per unit.

However, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission rejected awarding of the tender for setting up the plant to the earlier company. Earlier, the company was shortlisted as single bidder for the Rajpura plant. Bid by the single party was not allowed under the rules. The bidders should be more than one. However, the rejection of the tender has come to the rescue of the government as well as the Punjab State Electricty Board (PSEB) that would have to pay 41 paise less for each unit to be purchased from the L&T. Every year the saving would be worth several hundred crores on purchase of power to the PSEB.

According to the sources, the government has also taken up the issue of setting up the thermal plant at Gidderbaha. The government has urged the Centre that the National Thermal Power Corporation should be asked to set up thermal plant at Gidderbaha. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is expected to take up the issue with the Prime Minister and the Union Power Minister soon.