1500 MW more power to be available to Delhi in next 3 yrs: CM

New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) In what can be seen as a step in the direction of meeting the ever increasing power demands of the city, specially keeping in view the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Power Purchase Agreements to make an additional 1000 MW of power available to the capital in the next three years were signed between the Delhi transco Ltd and the Tehri Hydro Development Corp and the National Thermal Power Corp.

As per the agreements, signed in the presence of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and State Power Minister Haroon Yusuf, 1031 MW additional power would be available to Delhi from five different power stations belonging to Tehri and NTPC by the year 2009.

While 600 MW of power would come from the Tehri, 431 MW would be sourced from the NTPC' North Karanpura, Kahlgaon Stage II, Barh and Unchahar stage III power projects.

Out of the 1031 MW power to be sourced from the THDC and NTPC, about 130 MW would be available within the next two to three months - 100 MW from Tehri and 24 MW from NTPC's Unchahar power project, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told reporters here after the signing of the agreement.

''The rest of the power will be available to Delhi in phases in the next three years,''she said.

In addition to the 1031 MW from the THDC and NTPC, 490 MW will be available from the Dadri power plant by 2009, thus augmenting Delhi's power supply by 1500 MW in the next three years, Mrs Dikshit said.

Transco officials said that with the signing of the power purchase agreements, Delhi's future needs had been secured particularly for meeting the needs of 2010 Commonwealth Games.

However, Mrs Dikshit told reporters that while the Commonwealth was certainly a benchmark for ensuring additional supply of power in Delhi, the augmentation of power was to meet the constantly increasing power needs of the city.

''New stadiums, malls and hotels are constantly being built in Delhi. And with their coming up, the power requirement is bound to increase,''she said.

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