Chandrapur Thermal Power Station (CTPS) To Go Under The Hammer

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Amidst protests from local people and various organizations the 2X30-MW Chandrapur Thermal Power Station (CTPS) is set for auction on October 24 with a reserve value (price) of just Rs 3.01 crore.

As many as 25 items, including the main plant and machineries ranging from steam turbo generator to filter tank, are set to go under the hammer at 11 am on October 24 this year. After the publication of the advertisement for the auction on September 20, many businessmen have started visiting the power plant that has been lying idle since June 1999.

In the absence of any clear-cut power policy in the State that can neither revive its ailing plants nor start new ones, such a sad end of the thermal power plant in the vicinity of Guwahati is inevitable.

Meanwhile, a number of local people and organizations have been opposing the proposed auction of the thermal power plant. What has been doing the rounds is that the power plant under the APGCL (Assam Power Generation Corporation Ltd) is being auctioned with a view to handing over 40 bighas of its 1,100 bighas of land to the GMC (Guwahati Municipal Corporation). And that the GMC, according to sources, has a plan to shift the garbage dumping ground there from Boragaon and produce power from garbage (waste-to-energy converter plant). However, ever since the power plant stopped production in 1999 its 1,100 bigha-plot has been shrunken into a plot of around 600 bighas because of encroachment.

The first unit of the CTPS was commissioned in March 1973 and the second unit in January 1989. While the first unit used Low Sulphur Furnace Oil ((LSFO) as fuel, the second unit used Low Sulphur Heavy Stock (LSHS) as fuel.

The Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government in 2009 did take a move to revive the CTPS by enhancing its capacity to 150 MW from 60 MW. The move was also okayed by the then Cabinet also, but failed to materialize.

The CTPS that had 700 employees is now being looked after by 50 private security personnel.

Talking to The Sentinel, Ramen Das, an office-bearer of the Assam State Committee of the AITUC (All India Trade Union Congress), said: “The lack of farsightedness of the State government has pushed all public sector units under it towards closure. Despite being run under the APGCL, the CTPS is being auctioned. It’s neglect on the part of the government that failed its plan for the revival of the thermal power plant. The two HPC (Hindustan Paper Corporation) mills in the State are also following suit. We want Dispur to stop the auction of the CTPS and take steps for its revival.”