H.D. Revanna

BANGALORE: Karnataka has planned to add 8,000 MW to its generation capacity during the 11th Plan (2007-12) by spending Rs. 44,000 crore, taking the total installed capacity to 12,800 MW.

Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Minister for Energy H.D. Revanna, who attended a conference on power sector issues in New Delhi on Monday, said the new power stations which would augment generation in the 11th Plan are the I and II units of the Bellary Thermal Power Station (1,000 MW), Nagarjuna Thermal Power Project (1,150 MW), 8th unit of the Raichur Thermal Power Station (500 MW), Varahi Hydro-electric Project (280 MW), and projects at Kaushika in Hassan, Ghataprabha in Belguam, Chamalapura in Mysore and Jewargi in Gulbarga (1,000 MW each).

The Karnataka Power Corporation has planned a few small projects, he added.

"If we add the proposed ultra mega power projects in the State the figure will go up to 12,800 MW during the end of 11th Plan," he said.

He said most of the projects would be commissioned in the next 18 months. As many 31 firms had shown expression of interest on the State's proposal to generate power on public-private-partnership at Chamalapura, Ghataprabha and Jewargi.

He said the State had asked the Centre to increase the grant component of the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP) from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. He also urged the Centre to give Letters of Comfort assuring coal linkages for the successful bidder. Obtaining environmental clearance for power projects was also a difficult and time consuming affair, he said.

He urged the Centre to sanction the full amount of around Rs. 1,300 crore for the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyudeekaran Yojana to all the districts of the State.

Recently, the Centre expanded the coverage from 13 to 26 districts in the State. Though the Government had incurred an expenditure of Rs. 293 crore, the Centre had released only Rs. 160 crore so far, he said.

While urging the Centre to set up an energy council to be headed by the Prime Minister, Mr. Revanna said the Government should ease norms on obtaining environmental clearance for power projects, as it was a difficult and time consuming process now.

Noting that there was a need to bring down the aggregate technical and commercial loss to 15 per cent at the end of 11th Plan, he said huge investments were called for to realise this.

Mr. Revanna said Rs. 250 crore had been set aside for the Swarna Jyothi rural load management system for 2007-08.

Under the system, power supplied to irrigation pumpsets would be segregated from the power supplied to other rural consumers at the distribution transformer level. This would ensure 24-hour power supply to rural areas, the Minister added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail