Kolkata: Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Sunday that the UPA Government had worked out a scheme to provide free power connections to families living below the poverty line (BPL).

Addressing his first press meet after assuming charge 27 days ago, Mr. Shinde said this would come under its programme of "Power For All by 2012." Only the connections, not power supply, would be provided free of cost. Union Power Secretary R.V. Shahi who was also present said: "The cost of a free connection to a family will come to Rs. 1,500. It will work out to a total of Rs. 3,500 crore for the Union Power Ministry."

Mr. Shinde said that under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyut Yojana launched by the Power Ministry, every village would be electrified by 2009-10. "While only one agency has been entrusted with this job in all states, four implementing agencies (the National Thermal Power Corporation, National Hydro Electric Power Corporation, Damodar Valley Corporation and Power Grid Corporation India Ltd) have been asked to help out the West Bengal Government, since nearly 80 per cent of rural Bengal is yet to be electrified," he said.

Mr. Shinde was here along with NTPC Chairman C.P. Jain to lay the foundation stone of a 500 MW unit of NTPC, marking the third stage of the Farakka Super Thermal Power Project.

Improved performance

The Minister said that despite the non-availability of gas from different sources, about 82 per cent of the target (41,000 MW) under the Tenth Plan power capacity addition programme would be achieved.

"Even at this level, the Ministry's performance during the current Plan period was better than the Eighth and Ninth Plan, when only 50 per cent of the target was achieved. With the national grid's current capacity being 1.23 lakh MW, India faces an 11 per cent deficit during peak hours," he added.

In a bid to spur investment in the power sector, the Government had launched the Ultra Mega Power Project under a public - private partnership model.

Tenders for the first project - the Mundra Port-based project in Gujarat - were likely to be awarded by December 2006. While two projects under this scheme were pithead based, the other two, including the project at Karwar in Karnataka, were port-based.

On the Dabhol project, he said the second unit with a capacity of 740 MW would be functional by May and use naphtha as fuel. This would temporarily cater to the peak hour power deficit in Maharashtra.

On water shortage at the Farakka Power Station in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, the Minister said the issue would be taken up with the Union Water Resources Ministry.

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