5039 MW added in 2.5 years: KCR - TeluguPeople.com News

Hyderabad, Jan 4 (INN): Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has claimed that his government has added 5039 MW of power during the last two-and-half years in Telangana State.

Making a statement on the floor of State Legislative Assembly in view of Telangana State joining Centre's Uday Scheme on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said that as on June 2, 2014, the power capacity of the State was 5,8963 MW and the shortage was of 2,700 MW. With an addition of 5039 MW, today the power generation capacity in Telangana State is 10,902 MW. Of this, 3,531 MW were from Hydel, Solar and Wind Power. "Even though the power generation capacity is 10,902 MW, the stable power we can depend on is 7,371 MW. As on today, the demand for power is 8,284 MW. This shows the variation of more than 1,000 MW between demand and production in the State. Even then, my government is supply quality power without power cuts in the State," he said.

The Chief Minister claimed that from November 20, 2014, i.e., after six months of the formation of Telangana State, the government was supplying power without any power cuts. He also claimed that the government was supplying 24 hours power for domestic, industrial and commercial purposes and 9 hours three phase current to agriculture sector. "The usage of generators in our State has reduced drastically. Today, the time has come when the invertors will go and investors will come," he said.

KCR also claimed that presently Telangana was miles ahead in power sector. It has successfully overcome the difficulties that cropped up due to the indiscriminate policies adopted in erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh.

The Chief Minister said that the two discoms in the State were in the debts to the tune of Rs. 11,897 crore. Blaming the previous regimes for wrong policies, he said that his government focussed on augmenting power generation capacity through short term, medium term and long term strategies. "We mainly focussed on increasing the institutional capacity initially. We reduced the losses in supply and distribution from 16.83% to 15.98%. We substantially increased production of power through Genco. We marched forward to expeditiously complete the power plants which are progressing on snail pace," he said.

Due to these measures, 600 MW through Bhupalpally KTPP, 1200 MW through Jaipur Singareni Power Plant, 940 MW through Thermal Power Tech, 550 MW through Central Generating Stations, 240 MW through Jurala Hydro Power Project, 30 MW through Pulichintala Project, 1080 MW Solar Power, 99 MW Wind Power, totally about 5039 MW was realised within a short duration of two-and-a-half years.

The Chief Minister informed that by appreciating the performance of power sector, the financial institutions like REC and PFC had reduced the interest rate on loans from 12% to 9.95%. Due to this, Rs. 2,000 crore were saved. He hoped that the Telangana State would soon achieve the goal of being a power surplus State by generation of 5880 MW of power through Bhadradari, Yadadri and Kothagudem power plants which are to be newly established. As per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, NTPC will establish power generation stations with 4000 MW capacity at Ramagundem. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already laid the foundation stone for first phase construction of 1600 MW capacity plant. In three years 595 MW power will be provided through CGS. Singareni is establishing another 800 MW power station at Jaipur and 1000 MW of power will come in 3-4 months from Chattisgarh. Besides these plants, by 2017-18, 3920 MW of Solar Power will also be materialised.

KCR said that the Telangana State will have power capacity of 27,187 MW by 2019.

The Chief Minister informed the House that the government was entering into MoU with Central Government to join the Uday scheme. "Due to defective policies of erstwhile rulers, the two discoms were in debts to the tune of Rs. 11,897 crore. TSSPDCL has Rs. 7,392 crore debts while TSNPDCL has Rs. 4,505 debts. By joining in the Uday scheme, 75% of debts, i.e., Rs. 8,923 crore will be paid by the State Government. The remaining Rs. 2,974 crore can be given as bonds with government guarantee by Discoms. With this, the discoms will be free from burden of loan," he said while adding that the State will be saving Rs. 890 crore annual interest. He said that the government would be giving Rs. 4,584 crore to Discoms in form of subsidy.

KCR also informed that a decision has been taken to regularise about 20,000 employees working on outsourcing basis. So far, 1175 JLMs were regularised, he said.