Nagaland to request for special dispensation of power

Kohima, Apr 10: Reeling under severe power crisis since last year, Nagaland Government will formally request the Centre to allocate additonal power under the 'special dispensation' scheme.

Official sources here today said under this scheme, a request for a 'charity quota' would be forwarded to the Union Power Ministry for allocation from the National Power Grid.

Presently, Nagaland is managing with 13 - 14 MW of power against its total requirement of about 80 MW.

The state had long been urging the Centre for allocation of power considering Nagaland as a special case and on this request for additonal allocation would be made, said Commissioner and Secretary of Power of Nagaland Government Talitemjen Toy.

He said that the power shortage has become a serious issue, which needed to be addressed. He, however, stated that the power prelims is not confined to Nagaland alone, but is common in most of the states in the country, the Northeast in particular.

Nagaland Parliamentary Secretary for Power Doshehe Y Sema also confirmed that the state government will request the National Power Grid for more power as the distribution is to be done upon the requirement.

The state is instituting an IT-enabled system under the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme(APDRP) to monitor and regulate power operation in the state with the objective to renovate, modernise, update power plants, strength sub-transmission and distribution network, including energy accounting and metering in the distribution circles.

The APDRP proposal was accepted last year and the system is expected to become fully operational very soon this year.

UNI