Durgapur Projects Limited (DPL) has begun the process of dismantling a defunct coke oven plant occupying nearly 200 acres as part of the Bengal government decision to monetise unused land in a bid to offset losses of the state-owned power utility.

Sources from DPL said they plan to finish the dismantling of the plant, not in use since 2016, within a month.

“We have hired an agency to dismantle the coke oven plant and work is on in full swing. We are expecting to finish it within a month and free up around 200 acres,” said a DPL official, adding its scrap would be auctioned off.

The DPL’s coke oven plant had five batteries and would produce coking coal, coke-oven gas, and coal tar from its inception in 1961. DPL was the brainchild of then chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy.

As many as 1,400 permanent employees and over 900 contract labourers worked at the plant until 2015, before the government started the process to close the unit. “Employees were transferred to various state departments when the plant closed in 2016,” said a DPL official.

The Mamata Banerjee government then decided to sell or lease the unused plots of the DPL to clear its debts.

Sources said during a survey on unused plots, DPL found over 200 acres were occupied by illegal settlers. As removing them would have been problematic, it was decided to dismantle the coke oven plant.

Citu, however, is unhappy with this move and will launch a protest, said Pankaj Roy Sarkar, a Citu district committee member in West Burdwan.

The chief minister in 2015 had promised to revive the plant, but her government announced its closure next year and now they are dismantling it to free the land and sell it, he added.

Sources said it had been decided that the vast township built for its employees on 1,045 acres would be restructured to free around 600 acres.