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After a 13-year long wait, the Centre has finally cleared the setting up of four MW tidal power plants in the Sundarbans. “I'm happy that the pilot project of tidal power plant will be set up in our state,'' Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said today at a workshop on "Energy: Crisis and Remedies" jointly organised by IIT Kharagpur and West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (WBREDA).
National Hydro-electric Power Corporation (NHPC) and WBREDA will jointly set up the first tidal power plant on Durgaduani Creek near Gosaba in South 24-Parganas. NHPC will execute the process through turn-key method and it is expected that by 2010 the project will be commissioned, said Dr SP Gon Chowdhury, MD WBREDA. The total cost of the project is about Rs 50 crore of which 90 per cent would be shared by the Centre and the other 10 per cent by the state government. About one lakh families in Gosaba block will benefit from the project, he added. The next tidal project will be coming up at Kutch in Gujarat. The chief minister said research should be carried out whether a tidal power plant could be set up in any other rivers in the state. "About 96 per cent of the energy of our state comes from thermal power and we are going for more thermal power plants as we have few rivers in north Bengal where big hydel projects could be set up," the chief minister said. The basic problem lies in switching over to non-conventional energy from thermal energy, he said. Mr RA Parmar, head of Indian operation, Suzlon Energy Ltd declared his company would invest Rs 300 crore to set up 50 MW wind power at Dadan Patrabandh in Ramnagar block of East Midnapore. WBREDA is going to acquire about 777 acres of land from Bengal Salt and develop a "special purpose vehicle" and will invite expression of interest from other private entrepreneurs who are interested in setting up wind power there. Mr V Subramaniam, secretary, Ministry of New and Non-Conventional Energy, said, except West Bengal and Gujarat where there is political will to go for non-conventional energy in other states, there are the bureaucrats who try to promote non-conventional power. He said there has been a long gap between research work in laboratories and its commercialisation. He said research on bio-fuel, green power, should not be restricted to academics but should be commercialised and industrialists should be roped in. “I've requested the Spanish ambassador to set up a research station on wind power in our state,'' the chief minister said. He also sought expertise from IIT to rectify the existing thermal power plant so that there is less emission. Mr Bhattacharjee also said that to do away with fossil fuel emission the state government would soon come up with a fast-moving light transport system with Czech technology being consulted for that. He also said the Centre has approved East-West Metro connecting Salt Lake with Howrah station. Source: The Statesman News Service |
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