Bathinda thermal plant to be shut, employees shifted

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

In a decision that will affect almost 3,000 employees, both regular and contractual, the Punjab Cabinet today decided to shut down its 460 MW Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant in Bathinda and two units of the 1,260 MW Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant at Ropar with effect from January 1, 2018. 

While all regular employees will be shifted to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), the contractual staff will be “adjusted” in PSPCL, Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited and private thermal plants at Rajpura, Goindwal Sahib and Talwandi Sabo.

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Upset, the employees coordination committee of the Bathinda thermal plant claimed that in order to offset losses incurred on buying expensive power from private thermal plants, the government was shutting down its own units. Expressing doubt over the government’s intention to rehabilitate contractual employees, committee convener Parkash Singh said they planned a statewide protest, pointing out that the government had spent Rs 700 crore on the renovation of the Bathinda plant in 2014. 

Citing huge running losses (Rs 1,300 crore per month) being incurred on the Bathinda thermal plant alone, Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said the decision had been taken on the report of a Cabinet sub-committee constituted to look into the matter. 

“Power generation at Bathinda was costing Rs 11.50 per unit whereas it was available at Rs 2.50 under the tariff merit order of the Sasan Power Project in Madhya Pradesh,” he explained.

The decision was in accordance with Central Electricity Authority guidelines to shut  economically unviable power plants in operation for more than 25 years, the Finance Minister added.