Land struggle is what brought Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress to power in West Bengal. Now, eight months after forming the government, the same stance on land acquisition seems to be haunting her government and more so, the ailing power sector in the state.
According to sources, about 30 small and five big substation projects under the state power department are currently stuck due to land acquisition problems.
Keeping the poll promises, the Banerjee government came out with a new land policy, which stated that no forcible acquisition of land will be allowed and the state will play no role in acquiring land for private industries and public-private joint ventures. Moreover, power was omitted from the list of public sector projects for which the government will acquire land — which included security, national disaster, construction of roads and bridges and development of railways.
“Following the new government’s policy, we are in a spot of bother as 30 small 11-33 KV substations and five 130-233 KV sub station projects are on hold due to land acquisition issues. We are directly acquiring land for this, as per the government policy. So, it is not just about availability of power, even if we have power, we will not be able to distribute it,” said an official source close to the development. For each small substation the government will require about 1.5 acres of land and for each 33 KV substation it will require an average of 25 acres land.
When asked, Rajesh Pandey, the chairman and managing director of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL), said, “About 30 smaller sub station projects are at different stages of implementation, each of them cost about Rs 7 crore, amounting to a total of about Rs 210 crore for all these projects together.” WBSEDCL currently has 460 small substations and was working on 42 substations of 33/11 KV. The state power utility has a consumer base of over 84,00000.