Shinde urges to strengthen domestic base of power manufacturer

New Delhi, Aug 8 (UNI) Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today emphasised the need to strengthen the domestic base of manufacturer for augmenting indigenous capability to deliver more power project equipments, as about 1,00,000 MW of power is required during the 10th and 11th Plan periods.

He said that while many leading countries have several indigenous suppliers who individually have more than three and a half times capacity in comparison to the equipment manufacturer in India.

While addressing the Consultative Committee of the members of Parliament on Power, Mr Shinde said the Central Electricity Authority has assessed that a capacity addition of about 1,00,000 MW is required during the 10th and 11th plan periods.

He said though electricity is a concurrent subject, the decline in the financial and operational health of State Electricity Boards (SEBs) and utilities has made the Centre play an important role not only in the generation segment but also in areas such as rural electrification which were hitherto in the exclusive domain of the States.

Based on the 10th Plan, actual capacity addition of 21,180 MW, a capacity addition of 78,000 MW comprising of 40,000 MW in Central sector, 28,000 MW in State sector and 10,000 MW in private sector has been proposed during the 11th Plan.

The Minister said that out of 78,000 MW, project of 1,800 MW have been commissioned and projects of 51,000 MW that is 65 per cent of the proposed capacity are already under construction and for the remaining projects it is expected that the ordering process would be completed by December this year.

The members, while expressing concern over the enhanced target for the 11th Plan, came out with several suggestions for implementing the capacity addition plan for achieving the goal of power for all by 2012. These included adequate planning, regular monitoring, less dependency on equipment manufacturer and coordinated efforts.

UNI