Tamil Nadu   

``State ready to meet power demand''

Special Correspondent

More projects are coming up: Minister

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is well positioned to cope with increased demand for electricity given its current power surplus and new projects on the anvil.

"Till yesterday, we received applications from power producers [seeking approvals] to establish projects with a cumulative capacity of 32,000 mega watt," Electricity Minister Arcot. N. Veerasamy pointed out here on Sunday.

Among them are those of the Reliance group and a Malaysian firm, both of whom plan to put up a 3,000 MW project each.

The State Government was also in discussion with a U.S. firm keen on promoting a power project to produce cost-effective nuclear power, he told an awards function of the Rotary Club of Madras West.

Honoured

He presented the `For the Sake of Honour Award' of the Club to T. Sankaralingam, chairman and managing director of NTPC Limited and conferred the vocational excellence award on Vijaya Heart Foundation director and chief cardiologist K.N. Reddy.

Mr. Veerasamy said the NTPC had shown interest in setting up a 1,000 MW power projects in Cheyyur and North Chennai.

Its officials had also visited Nagapattinam recently to explore the possibility of setting up an ultra mega power project of 4,000 MW.

The proposed projects, according to Mr. Veerasamy, are important to the State as with little investment on them it stood to get half of the power produced.

At present, Tamil Nadu's installed capacity was 10,000 MW as against its requirement of 8,500 MW.

It sold the surplus power to other States, including Punjab at Rs.5.02 per unit.

Power Ministers meet

The Minister, who later spoke to The Hindu , said the Union Power Minister had convened a meeting of the electricity ministers of all States in New Delhi on Thursday.

It would take stock of the achievements during the 10th five-year plan period, discuss the preparations for the next plan period and the demand management.

The meeting would also deliberate on which of the two options — the memorandum of understanding route or through the tendering process — that the State Governments must follow while finalising the power purchase agreement.

Dedicates award

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Sankaralingam dedicated the award to his parents and the 24,000 employees of NTPC. Dr. Reddy appreciated the initiatives of the Rotary movement.

Rotary Club of Madras West president M. Krishna Sai said contributions of the two recipients were outstanding as well as went beyond the call of their regular duty.

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