NEW DELHI: The overall power shortage in the country, coupled with failure to meet the targets in the 10th Plan period that ends on March 31, has affected power supply to rural households.

This has resulted in a very bleak scenario that could have an adverse impact on the present economic growth. The worst affected States are Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Karnataka.

With demand surpassing growth in generation and capacity addition, the situation is set to get worse in the coming years if massive addition is not carried out.

Although the National Electricity Policy envisages ``power for all by 2012,'' the present scenario and the poor performance during the 10th Plan does not really augur well to achieve such a goal.

A capacity addition of 41,110 MW was envisaged in the 2002-07 Plan period. During the midterm appraisal, based on the project preparedness, the Planning Commission revised it to 31,290 MW. However, the capacity addition was only 23,250 MW.

Target for 11th Plan

For the 11th Plan, a target of 76,460 MW capacity addition has been set, comprising 16,253 MW of hydro power, 57,047 MW of thermal and 3,160 MW of nuclear power. Of this, 44,385 MW is already under construction with some projects being carried over from the 10th Plan.

Some States are managing to supply only eight to three hours of power a day to rural households,. However, States such as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Orissa, Delhi and Chandigarh have provided round- the-clock power.

Gujarat managed to supply on an average eight hours a day for three phase connections and 15 hours for single phase. Madhya Pradesh was even worse. It provided only with three hours of supply for single-phase and eight hours for three phase.

Karnataka was not far behind.

The supply hovered around eight hours a day for three phase and single-phase connections. Tamil Nadu stood much better with an average supply of 14 hours for three-phase and 10 hours for single phase.

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