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.
