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Shortfall in power production

Sujay Mehdudia

Due to delay in project expansion in T.N.

TNEB project
re-scheduled Projects in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh to be commissioned

NEW DELHI: The Power Ministry seems to have faltered in its first month of the crucial 2008-09 financial year. It announced on Thursday that contrary to expectations, the target of addition to power generating capacity for April 2008 will be missed.

The Ministry had set a target of 310 MW for April of which 250 MW has already been commissioned. However, the shortfall has been primarily due to the delay in commissioning of the phase-I of the Valuthur combined cycle gas-based power project expansion being executed by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) with a capacity of 59.8 MW.

The project was scheduled to be commissioned on April 26 but now it has been re-scheduled for May 4 at the request of the TNEB, according to Union Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh.

Transparency and accountability

Stating that he believed in complete transparency and public accountability, Mr. Ramesh informed that apart from Valuthur, unit VI of Mejia of the Damodar Valley Corporation 250 MW, unit II of Sagardighi of the West Bengal Power Development Corporation (300 MW) and unit V of Amarkantak thermal power station of the Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company (210 MW) have been lined up for commissioning.

Since the day he took over on April 7, Mr. Ramesh has been relentlessly working round the clock to take up on priority the capacity addition programme for the 11th Plan.

Biggest challenge

He said the biggest challenge is to reverse the trend of tall promises but poor achievements in capacity addition targets.

During the first year of the current Plan (2007-08), around 9,200 MW has already been commissioned, which by itself is the highest ever capacity addition in a single year.

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