Power Grid to lay new bipolar lines from North East

Bangalore, Jan 19 (UNI) To draw abundant power available in the North East, the public sector Power Grid Corporation would take up construction of eight bipolar 800 KV HVDC lines from that region to different parts of the country, its Chairman and Managing Director R P Singh said today.

Briefing newspersons on the new initiatives of the world's third largest power distribution company, he said the project cleared by the Union Government a few days ago was mainly to transmit power from Arunachal Pradesh where work on hydroelectric projects had begun to produce 5,000 MW of power.

To be completed by 2010, the first phase of the project that can transport up to 6,000 MW of power to a length of 3,000 km, would connect the North East region with Agra at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore. ''This is the first such project in the world. The highest capacity transmission line built at present is of the two way 600 KV line in Brazil. About 20 to 30 per cent of the funding would be by internal revenues and 50 per cent through a World Bank loan which has been sanctioned,'' he said.

Mr Singh, who had been adjudged the 'Best CEO of the Year' among the heads of public enterprises by a Government-appointed agency, said the National Hydel Power Corporation had begun building two hydro electric plants in Subhansari and Kameng in Arunachal Pradesh.

The second phase of the project, for which feasibility study had been taken up, would connect the North East with the South, but the location in South India was yet to be identified. The remaining six projects would be decided later, he added.

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