Power plant for Mumbai railways gets a fillip

The Mumbai suburban railways are all set to generate power with an aim to becoming self-sufficient. The power project, whose blueprint had been finalised by the local railways, has taken formal shape with the Indian Railways inviting consultants on how the project could be taken ahead.

Promised in the last year’s railway budget, a 700-megawatt gas-based plant, the third such project by the Indian Railways, is all set to come up at Thakurli, where land and other requirements are already in place.

The generated power at the Thakurli plant will not just meet the city railways’ requirements, but also make available the extra power generated to nearby areas. Thakurli is situated between Dombivli and Kalyan on the Central Railway. ‘’Once functional, the plant will provide all the necessary power to run suburban trains on both the Central and Western Railways, and the additional power in the grid can be given to other sources,’’ a senior official said.

Indian Railways already runs two power plants, one at Nabinagar (1000MW) in Bihar and second at Adra (1,320) in West Bengal. The 85-acre-land at Thakurli was earlier a coal-based power station generating that provided power to Kalyan-Igatpuri-Pune section till 1987 and called Chola Power station after the local village there.  It closed down after its aging boilers went down in a series of explosions.

The Thakurli power plant to be set up with the help of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) lies next to Thakurli railway station and is 10km away from the existing gas pipeline between Panvel and Uran near Shilphata. Thakurli Power Station still has the basic infrastructure for power generation. A 110 KV switch yard is available along with grid connectivity.

‘’Outside the 85-acre land will be a 100-metre green belt near the Ulhas river. The requirement of water for the plant is about 15.5 MLD of which about 14 MLD will be provided by the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation,’’ he added.