Gammon; PTC keen on setting up cogeneration power plant

CHANDIGARH: As many as 15 companies including Gammon, Power Trading Corporation, Triveni Engineering have shown interest in the setting up cogeneration power plants in the nine loss-making cooperative sugar mills in Punjab.

"Fifteen companies have shown interest in the revival of nine sugar mills in the cooperative sector," said a senior official of Punjab State Federation of Cooperative Sugar Mills Limited (Sugarfed).

Other major companies, which are keen on this project are Cheema Boilers, Spray Engineering, Indo-Green Field, Sariya Industries, he said.

Punjab had mooted a modernisation-cum-revival plan of nine sugar mills on build-own-operate-and-transfer (BOOT) basis, which would involve an outlay of Rs 865 crore.

These mills are situated at Ajnala, Batala, Bhogpur, Fazilka, Gurdaspur, Morinda, Nawanshahar, Ludhiana and Nakodar and their accumulated losses are to the tune of Rs 502 crore. Sugarfed would lease the mills to successful bidders for a period of fifteen years, he said.

As per the proposed plan, the sugar producing capacity of these nine sugarmills would be hiked considerably along with setting up cogeneration power units in these mills with an aim of making sugar mills viable.

Presently, the sugar production of these nine mills varies between 1,000 tonnes and 2,500 tonnes crushing per day per unit (TCD). Viability can not be obtained until capacity is increased to 5,000 TCD.

Emphasis would also be laid on setting up cogeneration power plants of 8-10 MW in each mill, he said. In Punjab, there are 15 cooperative sugar mills, of which six are closed. Cogeneration is the used of heat engine and power station to simultaneously produce electricity and heat.