Kerala   

Power tariff hike in Kerala “inevitable”

PALAKKAD: Kerala Electricity Minister A.K. Balan has said an increase in power tariff is inevitable to bridge the huge gap between expenditure and income of the Kerala State Electricity Board.

At a press conference here on Sunday, the Minister said the Board would give details of the expenditure and the income to the Kerala Electricity Regulatory Commission for 2006-07.

He said that to avoid raising the tariff, the State government should give subsidy, which was not possible owing to the financial crunch Kerala was facing. The government was giving subsidy to farmers and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Even this was not paid to the Board, and the arrears on this account was Rs.3,000 crore, the Minister said. On top of that, the Board had incurred an additional expenditure of Rs. 700 crore for increasing the wages of its employees.

Asked why the Board should go in for raising the tariff when dams of hydroelectric projects were overflowing and power was being produced at just 33 paise a unit, the Minister said there was no storage and generation capacity to use the favourable situation following the continuous heavy rain in the State for the past six months. He said only half the State’s power requirement was met from the hydroelectric projects and the rest was bought at a high cost from thermal and other sources. The State was not able to utilise 266 MW of free power allotted to it from the Koodankulam nuclear project because it could not draw a power line.

On the need for a comprehensive inquiry by a Central Government agency into the bursting of the penstock pipe at Panniar that killed eight persons, the Minister said that after getting the report of the ongoing inquiry, the government would decide on it.

Mr. Balan said Palakkad would become the first fully electrified district in the State. In another two years, power connection would be provided to all houses at a cost of Rs.24.8 crore. A meeting of the National Thermal Power Corporation, the rural electrification corporation and the Board would be held on November 1 here to launch the project. As the first step, the Assembly constituencies of Alathur and Kuzhalmannam would be fully electrified immediately. The project would be extended to the whole State to make Kerala the first fully electrified State in the country.

The Minister said a memorandum of understanding would be signed by Kerala, Gujarat and Orissa in November to form a company to utilise a coal field allotted in Orissa for generating power. From this project, 1,000 MW of power would be produced for the State in another 10 years.

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

Stories in this Section

Craft from the land of the Taj
Compulsory marriage registration
Climate change and public health
Decline in migratory birds
Moment to rejoice
IUML activist stabbed
Hartal hits fisheries sector
Proud moment
Full of fervour
Branding becomes the order of the day
Thiruvananthapuram today
Polluted habitat
Together for a cause
An eyewash
“Strengthen cooperative movement in Kerala”
Power tariff hike in Kerala “inevitable”

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu