CII to invest in NE power sector

Aizawl, Oct 20 (UNI) Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is planning to extend cooperation to the state Government in overcoming the crisis by bringing in private investment in the power sector.

CII officials here today said it had planned to organise seperate meetings between NE state governments and prominent power companies of India by this year and hoped the state would be able to rope in major companies to improve the power scenario.

It has hoped the completion of the ongoing projects in the region, including National Tharmal Power Corporation's (NTPC) project at Bongaigaon and Subansiri project being set up by National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), would improve the power scenario.

CII viewed that the Centre could help in improvement of the situation by increasing the allocation to the state and there was no point in waiting for the improvement of the states' own generation.

The NE states had already moved the Centre to make the NE Industrial Policy more attractive and to extend its tenure.

But no policy will be feasible without making power available and investors could not wait for the improvement of infrastructure facilities for industrialisation, CII officials observed.

They said both should go side by side as incentives were given in the policy to compensate the losses to be suffered by the industries because of problems like geographical isolation, lack of adequate infrastructure and so on and so forth.

They also opined that the less power intensive industries could overcome the problem of shortage of power as all industries do not require heavy power load. Of course, the power intensive industries like steel industry could not operate without adequate power.

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