Minister seeks 500 MW from Centre to tide over power crisis

Hyderabad, Jan 16 (UNI) Urging the Centre to allot 500 MW of unallotted power to Andhra Pradesh to tide over the power crisis, the state government today made it clear that it was not in a position to purchase gas at a high cost from the Cairne Energy to run its gas-based plants idling for want of adequate supply from the Gas Authority of India Limited.

''The state cannot afford to buy gas from Cairn Energy at 4.3 USD per unit and wants the Centre to allot gas at 1.75 USD being offered to states under the Administrative Pricing Mechanism (APM)'', State Power Minister Mohd Ali Shabeer told a press conference here.

As a follow up to the meeting Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, he would visit Delhi to hold talks with Mr Shinde, Mr Shabeer informed.

Setting apart Rs 1,166 crore to purchase power from the Centre and states, the state was taking all steps to meet its commitment of seven-hour power supply to peasants, he asserted, dismissing as ''baseless'' TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu's charge that the state government was saving on power subsidy by reducing power supply to seven hours.

Asking the former Chief Minister not to distort facts and figures, the Minister said he was sending the State Electricity Regulatory Commission tariff order, which showed that consumption of power by the farm sector went up from 11,350 million units in 2003-04 to 13,398 MW.

''In fact, Rs 400 crore additional charges were borne by the government to meet the increasing demand for power from farmers who had brought under cultivation 37.53 lakh hectares now as against 34.22 lakh hectares earlier following recharge of groundwater in the wake of good rains,'' he said.

''I am sending the order for the Leader of the Opposition to appreciate facts and figures'', he added.

The power situaton would ease once the Rayalaseema Unit III(210MW)Jurala Hydel project(39 MW), Vijayawada Thermal Power Station(VTPS) Stage IV(500 MW) and Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond(50 MW) were added during this year and next year, he explained.

The state would generate 500 to 700 MW of hydel power upto May this year to provide power to farmers, he added.

UNI