Waiting to plug in

While feeding Maharashtra’s power-starved grid, Ratnagiri’s dream plant must also fulfill local aspirations for a better future, reports Reshma Patil from Guhagar

THE change is obvious. Inside the high-security Dabhol power plant grounds, a ghost town abandoned for five years is coming alive. Even late in the evening, young moms push prams on the once empty campus streets.

Tennis courts and swimming pools are being spruced up as families with babies and a multinational workforce—from BHEL to GE, including Bechtel—move into rows of air-conditioned bungalows, each with its own garden patch and, if one is lucky, a trained cook.

At the transformed plant— Dabhol Power Company’s reincarnation as Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Ltd (RGPPL)—campus, teachers have arrived to take over the school with classes up to Standard VIII. Renovation of the recreation centre is complete with its gymnasium in place. Also at the staff’s service are an ATM, a new grocery store stocking teddy bears and a trendy barber shop. Officials also hope to set up a home theatre system soon.

“It was a jungle six months ago. We didn’t have rooms fit to work in or stay,” says a top RGPPL official. “Now things are different.”

Nowhere in the world has a power plant of this size and complexity been reactivated after five years. “It’s a unique experience. The schedule is extremely tight. Besides, power plants of this design are usually half this size,” says Thomas Chiangi, project manager, GE Energy, USA.

“Given India’s electricity needs, we’ve cut deadlines for reactivating Block II from five-and-a-half months to about two months,” says Chiangi. It is the first of the 2,144 MW capacity plant’s three blocks that will be reactivated from May 1. Full load commercial operations are slotted from July. Blocks I and III are targeted for revival later this year, subject to availability of natural gas supplies.

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