Hydro Policy for merchant sale of upto 40% in saleable energy

New Delhi, Feb 7 (UNI) Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today said to encourage private producers undertake new hydro projects, the government has decided to provide the facility of merchant sale of upto 40 per cent of the saleable energy to the developers under its new Policy.

''In order to create a level playing field for private and public hydro power producers, the cabinet approved a new Hydro Policy on January 3rd, 2008. The exemption from tarrif based competitive bidding which is currently available only to Public Sector Undertakings upto January 2011, is now also available to private hydro projects.'' An additional one per cent free power over and above 12 per cent will be earmarked for a Local Area Development Fund aimed at providing a regular stream of revenue for income generation, infrastructure creation and welfare schemes in the affected areas, Mr Shinde added.

''Each project affected family (PAF) will get 100 units of electricity every month for a period of 10 years free of charge and project authorities will construct houses at resettled sites for PAF's,'' Mr Shinde informed.

Also, at every project affected site an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) will be set up six month before the beginning of the project work in order to train PAF's to undertake skilled and semi-skilled jobs. Moreover, PAF's will be provided jobs in the project.

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