Huge investments in the energy sector needed: Shinde

Barh, May 29 (UNI) Union Energy Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today said that huge investments in the energy sector were needed to help India attain the status of a developed country.

After inaugurating the construction work of main plant building of NTPC's 1980 MW Super Thermal Power Project here, Mr Shinde said the country's GDP was presently pegged at eight per cent but it must be increased to at least 10 per cent for attaining the status of a developed nation.

He said the central agencies and the state government had entered into a series of agreements with investments worth Rs 11,000 crore in the energy sector.

He said the centrally sponsored projects worth Rs 500 crore were under various stages of implementation in the state.

India has the potential of becoming number one in the energy sector, Mr Shinde added.

The union energy minister said that implementation of the centrally sponsored programmes in the energy sector would be accelerated.

He said that pilferage of power was as high as 50 per cent in the state.

The national Plant Load Factor (PLF) was 75 per cent while that of NTPC alone was 91 per cent. He said the state government owned power units had the PLF of only 10 per cent.

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