NEW DELHI: The State Government on Thursday sought assistance from the Centre to meet the growing demand for power in the State.

It also urged the Centre to expedite funds due to the State under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Programme.

Anticipating an additional demand of 1,000 MW of power during the rabi season, the Government said while it was seeking to buy 500 MW power and already floated tenders for it, the Centre should give the rest from the central grid whose supply prices was below Rs. 2 per unit as against the nearly Rs.7 per unit from other sources.

Sharing this information, State Minister for Energy and Coal Mohammed Ali Shabbir said Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde promised that the Centre would try and give as much as it could from the Central grid.

Kaiga station

The Government also said it should be re-allotted the 115 MW of power from Kaiga atomic power station which the State had not claimed since 2002. Of the 440 MW allotted to four States of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Union Territory of Pondicherry, the then State Government did not take its share. The Union Minister assured that re-allocation would be done.

Mr. Shabbir also said the State's demand to allow 1,000 MW expansion of the Simhadri power project, the Union Minister said as per the norms of the Centre, the State would get only 35 per cent of the power generation. In order to meet its requirement, alternately the State Government could expand the capacity by 2,000 MW.

The State Minister said that Mr. Shinde spoke to the National Thermal Power Corporation so that work on expansion could be initiated.

As regards funds, the State Government said that it has already spent Rs. 200 crores under the rural electrification programme since the Centre had sanctioned the Rs. 649-crore plan for 17 of the 22 districts outside Hyderabad.

Centre's priority

The Union Minister said while the Centre's priority was to upgrade power in extremely backward regions and States, Andhra Pradesh was far ahead.

The State Government also drew the attention of Mr. Shinde that the power problem arose from the fact that the gas-based generation suffered on account of low availability.

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