New Delhi: The Punjab government has approved a super critical thermal plant of 4,000 MW capacity for Rupnagar, state power minister G S Kangar said Friday. Besides, a 60 MW biomass plant and a 100 MW solar plant are also coming up soon, he said. 

He sought to clarify that closure of 880 MW thermal units in Bathinda and Rupnagar by the government earlier would lead to dominance of private players in the power sector in times to come. 

"The closure of these units by no means amounts to dominance of private sector; it is just a switchover from the existing technology to the cheaper, greener, state-of-art technology," Kangar said while interacting with a delegation of power employees, as per an official release. 

In December last year, the state government had announced to shut down these units describing them as inefficient. 

Kangar assured the delegation that a joint committee of representatives of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, and Employees Associations would be formed to re-examine the existing Power Purchase Agreements (PPA).