Andhra Pradesh   

Power crisis due to lack of planning?

M. Malleswara Rao

HYDERABAD: Early warnings by the Agriculture Department about a steep increase in the area under borewell irrigation during the kharif season were ignored by the AP Transco.

This appears to be the primary cause of the present power crisis.

By the end of May itself, the department released the kharif action plan, forecasting that the area served by pump sets would go up substantially due to availability of free power and early onset of rain.

As forecast, the area under borewells went up from 8 lakh to 14 lakh hectares this year, most of it paddy, a water-intensive crop. As a result, there was heavy pressure on the grid from the 24 lakh pump sets, a majority of which are in Telangana and Rayalaseema.

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