Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar visits China Hudian Corporation and (below) watches the Olympic sailing site at Qingdao in China on Friday. Telegraph and PTI pictures

Patna, June 17: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today visited a thermal power plant owned by China Huadian Corporation — a cent per cent state-owned undertaking — on the fifth day of his China tour while the economically starved government undertaking Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) is trying to privatise at least the distribution of power.

The thermal power plant near Weifang uses super critical technology for its 660X2MW facility.

“It is but natural that the chief minister went to see a thermal power station owned by a state undertaking and with an impressive track record. But it is going to be an uphill talk to replicate it in Bihar,” a senior IAS official who was previously associated with the state energy department said.

Weifang, regarded as the international kites capital, is also home to China’s largest diesel engine company.

China Huadian Corporation was established in 2002 with a registered capital of RMB (Chinese currency) 12 million. The company’s main business areas are generation and supply of power, development of power-related primary energy such as coal and supply of technological services related to power.

The Chinese officials explained to the chief minister that China Huadian Corporation’s strategic goal by 2013 was to exceed an installed capacity of 10,000MW, have coal output exceeding 100 million tonnes a year and a profit exceeding 10 billion RMB with assets-liability ratio under 85 per cent.

In sharp contrast to China Huadian Corporation, the BSEB is in existence since 1958 but its present power generating capacity is just 220MW from two thermal plants — Kanti and Baruani. The power generated from its hydel project is about 19MWs. The two thermal power projects’ actual production is between 80 and 100MW. The state remains at the mercy of central power sector for their poor production.

The state government has to shell out around Rs 90 crore a month to keep BSEB functioning amid strike threats by its employees. The proposed unbundling of the BSEB has been put on hold for over a decade. Of late, the state government has invited tenders from private parties for distribution of power.

Making Bihar self-sufficient on the power front was one of the major promises of Nitish to the people of Bihar before the last Assembly polls. However, the quest for more energy production has been a frustrating experience for him with the proposed Nabinagar project getting delayed because of land acquisition, the revamping of Kanti and Baruani Thermal plant still in the pipeline and the Union government shooting down Bihar’s repeated requests for coal linkage — putting private investment in the power sector on hold. NTPC’s Barh Super Thermal Power project is yet to start production.

The lack of power has stopped major indus- trial houses from making foray into Bihar. The state energy department pointed out that enhancement of Baruani and Kanti Thermal plants was the only hope in the near future.

The chief minister has a tight schedule during his China visit. Besides visiting the power centre at Weifang, he went to several other places. He also took part in dinner hosted at Shanghai by people of Indian origin.

After digging into desi delicacies, Nitish’s interaction with food processing unit officials and traders at Shandong was more businesslike and exploratory in nature.