HP ready to quench power thirst of Northern states

New Delhi, May 28 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh today requested the Centre to allocate its power share of 632.4 Mega Watts directly to Delhi, Haryana, Punjab from April to October to meet the acute power shortage in these states during summers.

Speaking at the Chief Ministers' Conference on Power here, state Power Minister Vidya Stokes said while Himachal received 12 per cent free power from National Hydro Power Corporation and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigan Ltd power plants set up in the state, it had a share amounting to 632.4 MW in these power projects.

The state govt had already requested the Centre to allocate surplus power to the needy states during the summer months from April to October. The union power ministry had intimated that it was upto the home state to decide whether it would utilise this power itself or sell it to other states on mutually agreed terms.

But this resulted in double transactions of the power -- first transactions was from generations station to the state electricity board and the second transaction (open access) from state electricity board to buying state. This was resulting in increase in landed cost of power, she noted.

Ms Stokes requested the Centre to avoid double transaction for the same power and allocate the state's share directly to the needy states like Delhi during summer.

She urged the Centre to sanctions the schemes amounting to Rs 457.80 crore for all the 12 districts under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna submitted by state government. Centre had already sanctioned one scheme for district Chamba amounting to Rs 25.02 crore out of which first installement of Rs 7.33 crore was released in March this year.

The union power ministry had also sanctioned Rs 322.78 crore for strengthening and upgradations of sub transmission and distributions system under APDRP schemes in the state, where 80 per cent work had been achieved within sanctioned scheme costs.

Ms Stokes informed that revised schemes for seven circles amounting to Rs 73.6 crore under the APDRP scheme had been approved by central government and sought immediate release of additional Rs 73.6 crore to implement all such schemes in a time bound manner.

All district and session courts had been designated as special courts for speedy trial of power theft in the state. Besides, 100 per cent metering of all categories of consumers had already been achieved in Himachal, she said.

All out efforts were also being made to reduce the transmission and distributions losses to the level of 15 per cent by the end of 11th Plan and with the state government being able to reduce T&D losses by 7.63 per cent during the last four years, she added.

UNI