Bhel says no to a plant at Singur

The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government’s bid to get Bhel to set up a 1,600-MW power plant on the abandoned Nano factory land in Singur has

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been dealt a blow with the PSU describing the proposed project as ‘unfeasible’ and ‘not viable’.

Over a year after the Tatas shifted their small-car factory to Gujarat after resistance from Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, industries minister Nirupam Sen had proposed the power plant as an alternative. He wanted Bhel to set up the power plant in a joint venture with the Power Development Corporation Limited (PDCL), a state undertaking.

Accordingly, Bhel and PDCL officials inspected the site earlier this month. That the 997-acre plot — still in the possession of Tata Motors — remains in the eye of a political storm raging since 2006 became evident the very next day.

Mamata was quick to reiterate her counter proposal for the site — a wagon manufacturing unit with ancillaries in Dankuni. The mother project, she had said, would be connected to ancillaries by a dedicated railway track she promised to lay for goods trains to ply between Singur and Dankuni. Bhel’s refusal to go ahead with the project paves the way for the wagon unit proposed by her.

A letter to PDCL by a Bhel official cited technical, commercial and environmental grounds for refusing to enter into the proposed joint venture for the power plant.


Ref:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Bhel-says-no-to-a-plant-at-Singur-/articleshow/5280664.cms