The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Move on thermal station opposed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 25, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Move on thermal station opposed

Staff Reporter

The authorities claim they have not received closure notice so far

NELLORE: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has strongly condemned the proposed `closure' of the Nellore Thermal Station (NTS), at Kovur, six km from Nellore town.

In a joint statement issued here on Sunday, the district president of the party, S. Chandramohan Reddy, the former MLAs -- N. Prasannna Kumar Reddy, K. Vijayarami Reddy and Y. Srinivasulu Reddy -- and the former MP, V. Rajeswaramma, regretted the decision and recalled as to how the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, as the Opposition leader, had championed the cause of sick industries and vowed to reopen them. However, it has been proposed to close down the 30 MW station on the ground that there was escalation in production costs, affecting the livelihood several employees.

Set up in 1965

The NTS was supposed to be a model thermal station and was completed way back in 1965, with Japanese collaboration and opened by the then President of All India Congress Committee (AICC), K. Kamaraj.

However, since then its capacity had been confined to 30 MW and no serious efforts were made to increase the capacity.

Claims

The SE (NTS), Rajasekhara Rao, however, claimed that the authorities had so far not received any orders relating to the `closure' of the plant.

According to him, the plant had not been functioning since April 18 owing to a current transformer (CT) blast elsewhere, resulting in dislocation of internal power supply to the plant.

Meanwhile, the locals and trade unions held a `rasta roko' and a dharna before the plant in protest against the Government's decision.

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