WB to develop 900MW Bandhunala pump storage proj in PPP mode

Kolkata: The West Bengal government has decided to develop the third pump storage power plant at Purulia under the public-private partnership (PPP) model and it has already received early interest proposals from investors, a state government official said.

JSW Group Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal recently announced plans to set up a 1,000 MW pumped storage energy project in West Bengal which appears to be the third Purulia pump storage Bandhunala power project, the official said.

Jindal had made the announcement at the recently concluded Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) - the state's showpiece industry event.

JSW officials however, remained tight-lipped on the details of the announcement.

"We will be developing Turga pump storage power plant with help of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan but Bandhunala project will be executed through a private player," state Power Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay told PTI.

The project will, however, take the competitive bidding process route to select a developer.

Bandhunala project is presently at a nascent stage.

For the second Purulia pump storage project of 1,000 MW at Turga, the state government and JICA had executed a Rs 5,000 crore loan agreement. The pumped storage project is estimated at Rs 6,922 crore, JICA had said.

The project entails building four reversible pump-turbine of 250MW each.

The state has been seeking a grant from clean energy cess from the Centre but there has been no sign of progress till now.