Govt confident of achieving quality power for all: Shinde

New Delhi, Feb 19 (UNI) The government today said the target of adding 78,577 MW power during the 11th Plan period is possible only with rigorous monitoring of the implementation of every project.

Minister of Power Sushilkumar Shinde, while addressing the Conference of the Chief Secretaries here, called upon the states to jointly address the issues and problems being faced by the power sector.

He said the Government is fully committed to achieving the target of quality power for all, at an affordable rate by the end of 11th Plan, but emphasised that states also have to play a major role in achieving this goal.

''The Central Government is monitoring the capacity addition programme very closely. However, success cannot be assured unless the State Governments also participate in the process actively,'' Mr Shinde said.

Talking about the steady increase of the Centre's share in power generation, while that of the states has been on decline over the last four decades, the Minister said the states should actively pursue their capacity addition programmes and not depend solely on the Centre or private sector projects.

To reduce the AT&C losses to less than 15 per cent, the Minister suggested better governance and administrative practices, restructuring of utilities to make them more focused, deployment of better manpower and use of better technology.

Emphasizing the need for concerted efforts to ensure that every village is electrified by 2009 and every household has electricity connection by 2012, Mr Shinde advised the states to pay closer attention to their capacity addition programme.

For the 11th Plan, he said, the allocation for the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana has been enhanced to Rs 28,000 crores.

The scheme has been extended to cover habitations with population of 100 and above and now it is also stipulated that prior to release of any subsidy under RGGVY, the state government has to guarantee a minimum daily supply of 6-8 hours of electricity in the RGGVY network, he added.

On open access in transmission and distribution, the Minister observed that while Central transmission utility has fully operationalised open access in transmission, the same cannot be said about the states.

He urged the states to prepare a clear programme for the expansion and strengthening of their transmission and distribution systems with definite timelines and monitor their implementation closely.

UNI MP SR PM2101