Centre assures Delhi additional 500 MW power for the summer

New Delhi, Feb 14 (UNI) In a bid to gear up for the power crunch in the coming months, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today met union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and sought an additional 500 MW of power for the national capital.

Responding to the request, Union Power Minister assured that the Centre would explore all possible means to meet the power demands of the city, including making available an additional 500 MW of power.

Ms Dikshit apprised the union minister about the rampant load shedding during the summer season that cause enormous problems hardship to the people in Delhi.

Ms Dikshit also informed the minister that private power distribution company BSES was not performing upto the mark due to which consumers were facing many difficulties.

She requested the minister to convene a joint meeting with the Distcom to resolve the issues.

Ms Dikshit informed Mr Shinde about the recently set up Public Grievance Cell of the power department under the Chairmanship of a retired High Court judge to sort out power-related grievances of the consumers.

She also demanded release of 300 cusecs of water from Sonia Vihar Water Treatment Plant from Tehri Hydro Project, which was supplying only 100 cusecs of water.

The officials of the ministry further informed that the Tehri Dam Authority was releasing 300 cusecs only for drinking water supply to Delhi.

The Union Power Minister assured to take up the matter with the Uttar Pradesh government to make available full 300 cusecs to Delhi.

Ms Dikshit pointed out that the Tehri Dam Project was techno-economically cleared by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) at a meeting held on August 12, 1988.

At the time of the appraisal and clearance of the project, the CEA considered all relevant factors and specifically made the clearance on the basis of the agreement of the UP government to reserve 300 cusecs of water for meeting the drinking water requirements of Delhi, and UP government had unequivocally agreed to this condition too.

However, Delhi was yet to receive the promised quantity from UP.

Ms Dikshit presented a book on ''Delhi's Experience with Reforms in Power Sector'' published by Delhi government's Power Department to Mr Shinde on the occasion.

She was accompanied by Delhi Power Minister Haroon Yusuf, Chief Secretary Ramesh Narayanswami and Principal Secretary (Power) Rakesh Mehta.

Union Power Secretary Anil Razdan and senior union power ministry officials were also present in the meeting.

UNI