BHEL to refurnish Obra power units in UP

Lucknow, May 10 (UNI) Concerned over the poor performance of ageing thermal power machines, the Uttar Pradesh has decided to rope in Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) to refurnish plant machineries in five units at Obra thermal power plant.

The refurnishing of five units of 200 MW each would incur an expenditure of Rs 1000 crore and would take 30 months to get the task completed. An additional amount of Rs 117 crore would be spent on the environment control device.

A decision to this effect was taken here today at the state cabinet meeting chaired by UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The Cabinet gave a go ahead to UP Power Generation Company in this regard.

Out of this Rs 1000 crore,70 per cent would be arranged by loan while remaining 30 per cent would be provided by the state government, UP Chief Secretary Navin Chandra Bajpayee told reporters here.

He said the need of overhauling of the machines was being felt for quite some time and the proposed refurnishing would increase the Plant Load Factor (PLF) and reduce the coal consumption at these thermal units by 30 per cent.

FRANCHISEES IN RURAL AREAS ; In another major cabinet decision, the state government decided to give franchisee to NGOs, cooperative societies and panchayati raj institutions in the rural areas to undertake power sector related work.

These frachisees would help rural consumers to get their power bills, collection of bill dues and other consumer related works, Mr Bajpayee said.

It was being done in pursuance to the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC)'s condition in this regard, he said. After implementation of this, the UP government would get Rs 2500 crore from REC towards rural electrification.

UNI SB/MB VD SSC1323