9th July, 2003
Ministry of Power  


41000 MW CAPACITY ADDITION TARGET FOR TENTH PLAN

POWER MINISTRY CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE MEETS


Power Minister, Shri Anant G. Geete has said that Government is committed towards development of feasible hydro potential of the country to the full extent. The Minister was addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry at Gangtok. The subject for discussion at the meeting was Capacity Addition Programme during the Tenth Five Year Plan. He said that the Tenth Plan target for hydro capacity addition is 14,393 MW. With a view to give big boost to hydro sector the Prime Minister launched 50,000 MW Hydro-electric Initiative which will see completion of 162 hydro-electric projects in Eleventh and Twelfth Plans. A capacity addition of 41,000 MW during the Tenth Plan is envisaged. Of this 22,832 MW will be in the Central Sector, 11,157 MW in the State Sector and 7,121 MW for the Private Sector, the Minister said.

Shri Geete said that it is imperative that the capacity addition targets for the Tenth Plan are achieved to avoid power crisis. Several steps have been initiated to ensure that capacity addition targets set for Tenth Five Year Plan are realised. Keeping in view the fact that private sector did not come up to the expectations during Ninth Plan, greater responsibility has been placed on Public Sector. The Central Sector Tenth Plan outlay in comparison to Ninth Plan has been raised more than three fold, he added. The monitoring mechanism has been strengthened to review all identified projects quarterly. The Central Electricity Authority has a nodal officer for each project, both at the conception stage as well as during execution. Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation have mobilised themselves adequately to see that the execution of good projects is not hampered due to lack of funds.

Despite these efforts the apprehension is that some of projects originally identified for execution may not come up due to variety of reasons. In order to make up for any shortfall on this count, an additional capacity to the tune of 8017 MW has been identified in consultation with States/CPSUs.

The Tenth Plan capacity addition targets were finalised in consultation with the States and on the basis of identification of individual projects, the committee was informed. The Central Electricity Authority and the Ministry of Power is coordinating with the State governments and the utilities to ensure timely completion of each project. Recognising the fact that States have to play an important role in setting up of power projects, to impress upon the States to provide proper thrust in achieving the capacity addition targets, a Power Minsters' Conference was convened recently. As an outcome various States committed to place award on the power projects having total capacity of 12,260 MW within this year. The Minister was confident that with the Electricity Act 2003 coming into effect, the process of capacity addition in the country will further accelerate as procedures have been further simplified and investment in the Power sector is being encouraged.

The following Members attended the meeting. S/Shri Suresh Chandel, Subodh Ray, Jai Bhadra Singh, Maheshwar Singh, Bashistha Narain Singh, P.S.Thakor, Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Prof. (Smt.) Rita Verma and Smt. Jamana Devi Barupal. The Members also visited the Project site at Teesta-V.