1,000 MW gas-based power plant gets nod

Badal,who met a team officers of Gail,led by its chairman and managing director (CMD) B C Tripathi,also asked the CMD Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) to look into the issues involved in establishing the power plant.

The proposed plant will have three units of 330 MW each,an official spokesman said,adding that in the first phase one unit will be set up with the remaining two to be added at a later stage.

The project is being seen as financially viable and self sustainable because 150 acres of land is already available in the vicinity of the Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant at Ropar besides assured gas supply from Dadri-Nangal pipeline on its way.

Meanwhile,Badal asked Tripathi to immediately set up enabling infrastructure in the state for the assured supply of CNG to the transport sector. He also agreed to the Gail CMD’s proposal to initially run the city bus service in Ludhiana and Jalandhar on CNG,which could be replicated later by the state government to run the Punjab Roadways and PEPSU buses.

Badal asked the principal secretary,local government,to work out the modalities to start inter-city CNG bus service on pilot basis. The model could also be applied in other municipal corporation cities of Amritsar,Bathinda,Patiala and Mohali later on.

Badal also asked the chief secretary to get the “master gas plan” prepared from Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation and Gail to ensure uninterrupted gas supply. He also directed the Punjab Pollution Control Board to issue directives to the industrial hubs along the Dadri-Nangal gas pipeline for immediate conversion of fuel usage to gas.

Talking to Badal,Tripathi said that gas-based power plants can help tide over the present shortage of 3,500 MW by 2014-15. The share of gas from Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline would be made available from 2016-17 to meet power shortage in the state,Tripathi said,while emphasising the need to form a joint working group of PSPCL and Gail to resolve power generation issues.

Meanwhile,the chief secretary Rakesh Singh asked the transport secretary Mandeep Singh to sign an MoU with Gail within a fortnight for initiating an action bound plan to run state-owned buses on CNG.

While asking the transport department to explore possibilities to switch over the public transport from diesel to CNG in a phase-wise manner,the chief secretary sought to start direct CNG-run buses Amritsar to Delhi as the Gail already had a network of CNG stations en route National Highway 1 at Delhi and Sonepat.

Filling stations would soon be set up Ambala,Rajpura,Ludhiana,Jalandhar and Amritsar too,he added.

Later,Badal directed the chief secretary to take up with Greater Mohali Area Development Authority issue of allotment of a site to Gail for its zonal office at Mohali.