The Hindu : Business : BHEL officials visit Singur site

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BHEL officials visit Singur site

Indrani Dutta

KOLKATA: A team of officials including four senior executives of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd on Thursday visited Singur, the erstwhile project site of the Tatas’ Nano car. It was accompanied by an official from the state-owned West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd.

WBPDCL managing director D. Sen confirmed that BHEL officials had checked out the site.

However, Industry Secretary Sabyasachi Sen, who held a meeting with Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborti and an official of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, declined to give any details, merely saying “WBPDCL may join a company for setting up a power plant on the Singur land.”

He said the team had visited the land, owned by the government.

This was the second visit by officials of the “Navaratna” PSU to the State in recent times. Two months ago there were reports of a meeting with BHEL officials to discuss the proposal for setting up a unit on the Singur site. Thursday’s team was led by BHEL general manager S. C. Mittal.

Two proposals

Sources in the Power Department told The Hindu that there were two proposals with the government for utilising the Singur land. One, setting up a power plant equipment unit there as BHEL does not have any such unit in the eastern region now and is keen on setting it up a unit to capture the power plant equipment market.

The second proposal was WBPDCL and BHEL entering into a joint venture to set up a 1600-MW power plant. This would be a super critical power plant of 800 MW each, the second such project in the country.

Mamata says ‘no’

PTI reports from New Delhi:

Hours after the BHEL team visit, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee told journalists that no project would be allowed at Singur unless 400 acres of land was returned to farmers.

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