4000 MW Super Critical Thermal Plant, 60 MW Biomass Plant and 100 MW Solar Plant for cheaper and greener power in the State- Kangar

Chandigarh : Allaying the fear of PSPCL employees regarding dominance of private players in the Power Sector due to closure of 880 MW thermal units in Bathinda and Ropar, Mr. GS Kangar, Power Minister Punjab, informed that the State Government has approved a Super Critical Thermal Plant for Ropar which will have 5 units of 800 MW generation capacity each. Besides, a 60 MW Biomass Plant and a 100 MW Solar Plant are also coming up soon.

So, “the closure of existing units by no means amount to dominance of private sector; it is just a switchover from the existing technology to the cheaper, greener, state -of -art technology,” said he. Giving a patient hearing to the delegations of Joint Employees Forum and Bilji Mulazam Ekta Manch, Mr. Kangar assured that a joint committee of representatives of PSPCL, PSTCL and Employees Associations would be formed to re-examine the existing Power Purchase Agreements (PPA).

He also promised favourable solution to the 23 year promotional scale and the pay band issues and advised the CMD PSPCL to look into the issue in the forthcoming meeting of the Board of Directors (BoD). He informed that over 600 employees of various cadres have been promoted and about 400 others will be promoted soon. Terming the death of short term contractual employees working on live wires as unfortunate,

Power Minister directed the CMD to review the compensation criterion for such cases and workout a reasonable reimbursement/job option for the dependants of such employees. Besides others, Mr. A. Venu Prasad, Principal Secretary Power, Er. Baldev Singh Sran, CMD, PSPCL and Mr. RP Pandove, Director (Administration) were present on the occasion.