Battle of nerves for hostage NTPC staff

Patna: The NTPC Executives Federation of India on Tuesday threatened to pull out employees and their families residing at the Bharatiya Rail Bijlee Company Limited (BRBCL) thermal power plant township at Nabinagar in Aurangabad to ensure their safety as they are being held hostage since Monday morning by local villagers demanding free electricity supply.

"It is a law and order issue there to which the state government has to pay attention. We are worried about the safety and security of our executives and their family members residing at the BRBCL township. We will be forced to evacuate them from the facility," federation chairman V.K. Sharma told The Telegraph.

BRBCL is a 74:26 joint venture of NTPC and Indian Railways and at present a 250MW thermal power unit is operational at Nabinagar, around 180km southwest from Patna. Three more such units are being constructed. The electricity generated is fed chiefly to the railways.

At present, over 100 families and around 50 bachelor employees are residing at the BRBCL township which was constructed and inhabited six months ago. It is situated adjacent to the power plant.

The residents of Surar village, located at a distance of around one kilometre, were illegally tapping the electricity supplied to the township directly from the thermal power plant despite NTPC's repeated requests not to do so.