Delhi to get power from Gujarat, Orissa to meet shortage: CM

New Delhi, July 7: In an indication that Delhi's power woes could end soon, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today said her Government has almost clinched a deal to get power from Gujarat and Orissa to overcome existing shortage of around 500MW power in the national capital.

She said her Government was aware of the difficulties being faced by Delhiites due to power shortage.

Talking to mediapersons, she said the Badarpur Power Station, whose shutdown for maintenance has contributed in large part to the present power crunch would be functional again by July 20.

However, keeping in view the waiting period for full operationalisation of Badarpur Power Station, the Delhi government has approached Gujarat and Orissa.

Ms Dikshit expressed confidence that power from these two states would definitely be transmitted to Delhi within the next couple of days. Delhiites would have needed relief once Delhi gets power from these two states.

Delhi Government has taken up the matter with Union Ministry of Power.

Power Secretary R V Shahi has called a meeting of the states tomorrow to facilitate transmission of power to Delhi.

In another significant step, the Delhi Government today given green signal for setting up of power generation projects from municipal waste. Talking to newspersons after the presentation, Ms Dikshit said the commissioning of projects at Timarpur, Okhla, Gazipur, Dwarka, Coronation Pillar, Rithala, Kesopur and Nilothi have been suggested which would altogether consume around 6000 Metric tonnesof municipal solid waste and 700 MGD sewage to produce 90 MW green power with no loss to environment.

Apart from this, the projects would produce treated water to be diverted to river Yamuna. Each project would generate around 8-10 MW power.

She said setting up of these projects would help in disposal of the entire garbage to the nearest place, resulting in a huge saving of transportation cost.

The concept of development of landfill sites would automatically become irrelevant after commissioning of green power projects.

Ms Dikshit has instructed the agencies concerned to gradually make functional these projects which would go a long way in disposal of garbage at the nearest sites.

The DJB, DDA, MCD and other agencies would provide land on lease for 25 years to these projects.

UNI