CONTRIBUTION TO FUND: Minister for Energy and Public Works (second from left) presenting a cheque for Rs. 5 crore from KPTCL to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy (third from right) towards the Chief Minister's Relief Fund in Bangalore on Saturday in t he presence of (from left) KPTCL managing director Bharat Lal Meena and Ministers Jagadish Shettar, V.S. Acharya and M.P. Prakash. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: The State Government will seek a Rs. 4,000-crore loan from the World Bank to upgrade 4,000 km of roads under the second phase of the Karnataka State Highways Improvement Project (KSHIP-II).

Minister for Public Works and Energy H.D. Revanna told presspersons here on Saturday that a committee headed by K.C. Reddy, adviser to the PWD and the Energy Department, had been constituted to prepare a plan. About 2,000 km of roads had been identified for upgrading. An estimated Rs. 60 lakh would be required to upgrade 1 km of road, he said.

According to a study, out of 177 taluks in the State, 53 taluk headquarter towns are not connected by high quality roads built by the National Highways, the Karnataka Road Development Corporation or under KSHIP of the Public Works Department.

KSHIP-I, which was launched in 2001 with World Bank assistance, is likely to be completed in June 2007, six months behind schedule. Under it, 2,381 km of roads were taken up for improvement at a cost of Rs. 2,030 crore, sources said.

Power generation

Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd. (KPCL) had decided to invest Rs. 5,000 crore to generate an additional 1,500 MW of power over the next two years, Mr. Revanna said.

The additional 1,500 MW would be generated by implementing various new projects, including the second unit of the Varahi hydel project, expansion of the Bellary Thermal Power Station (BTPS) and commissioning the eighth unit of the Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS). The eighth unit of the RTPS, on which KPCL would spend Rs. 230 crore, would generate 230 MW and the second unit of the BTPS would be taken up at a cost of Rs. 2,000 crore and it would add 500 MW, he said.

Earlier, Mr. Revanna donated a cheque for Rs. 5 crore from KPTCL to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy towards the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

The Minister said the Government had identified 2,000 acres near Raichur to set up another thermal power station where three 800-MW units would be established. The estimated cost of each unit would be Rs. 600 crore.

Apart from setting up these new power stations, Mr. Revanna said the Government planned to invest Rs. 17,000 crore over the next five years to generate another 4,000 MW of power. The new projects, most of them thermal-based, would come up in Gulbarga, Bijapur, Raichur and Mysore districts, he said.

KPCL also planned to tap wind energy in Chitradurga district to produce 1,050 MW of power. The wind energy projects would be set up in partnership with private agencies. The Government had also taken the initiative to improve the power distribution system for which KPTCL would spend Rs. 1,750 crore over the next two years.

The Minister said the cost of power generation had come down substantially with all the hydel reservoirs brimming. The savings would be used to improve the power distribution system, he said.

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