State to generate addln 1500 MW

Bangalore, Aug 26: The state-owned Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) will spend Rs 5,000 crore to generate an additional 1500 MW of power in the next 24 months, Power Minister H D Revanna informed today.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Revanna, also KPCL Chairman, said the additional 1500 MW would be generated by implementing various new projects including the second phase of the Varahi Hydel project, expansion of Bellary Thermal power project and the eight unit of the Raichur Thermal Power Station.

He said the resources for taking up the new projects would be raised from the Power Finance Corporation and commercial banks.

The Minister said the state government had identified 5000 acres of land near Raichur to set up a new thermal power station where three thermal units with a capacity of 800 MW would come up. The coal required for the proposed thermal power plant would be procured from Talachery coal fields in Orissa and also imported from Cape Town in South Africa, he added.

Mr Revanna said apart from setting up new power stations to generate 1500 MW, the state government had also planned to produce another 4000 MW of power by spending Rs 17,000 crore. The new projects, most of them thermal-based, would come up in Gulbarga, Bijapur, Raichur and Mysore districts.

He said the KPCL had also planned to tap wind energy to produce 1,050 MW of power in Chitradurga district. The wind energy projects would be set up with private partnership, he added.

Mr Revanna said the state government had taken initiative to improve the power distribution systems and the KPTCL would spend Rs 1,750 crore in this direction in the next 24 months.

To a question, he said the cost of power generation had come down drastically with all the reservoirs supplying water to Hydel projects brimming following heavy rain in its catchment areas. The savings from it would be utilised for the improvement of power distribution systems in the state, he added.

UNI