PUDA to acquire 1,764 acre land of closed Bathinda thermal plant

The cabinet in a meeting chaired by chief minister Amarinder Singh also mandated PUDA to raise loan up to ₹100 crore for development and sale of the site

The Punjab cabinet on Monday gave the go-ahead for redevelopment of 1,764 acre land of the closed Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Power Plant in Bathinda. The land belonging to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) will now be acquired by the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA).

HT Image

The cabinet in a meeting chaired by chief minister Amarinder Singh also mandated PUDA to raise loan up to ₹100 crore for development and sale of the site.

The plant was shut down in 2018 as per the recommendations of a sub-committee set up a year earlier in view of the Central Electricity Agency (CEA) guidelines to cease functioning of non-viable thermal power projects having exceeded the 25-year life span.

Last month, a cabinet sub-committee was set up to work out the modalities of redevelopment.

The PSPCL board had passed a resolution to hand over the land (barring the areas under a residential colony spread over 280 acres) to PUDA for appropriate development and sale. Under the plan, 80% profit from the sale of the developed land, over and above its notional value, will go to the owner (PSPCL) and 20% will be shared by PUDA as developer. PUDA will rope in the services of professional agency to advise it on the best possible utilisation of different parcels of the land.