TN to buy power from NE states for summer demand

Chennai, Feb 27 (UNI) Ruling out power cut during annual exams, Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Arcot N Veerasamy today said the state would purchase power from north eastern states to meet the peak summer demand.

Talking to reporters here, he assured the student community that there would not be any power cut at night during the examinations and said instructions were given to Tamil Nadu Electricity Board not to cut over 1800 hrs during examinations.

Observing that the government had resorted to one hour load shedding in rural areas to meet the power shortage of 300 MW, he said, at present the peak hour demand was placed at 8,900 MW as against the power generation of 8,600 MW in the state.

The demand was expected to go upto 9,300 MW to 9,400 MW during the ensuing summer, he said and added that to meet the demand the government had decided to purchase power from West Bengal, Orissa and Assam.

''The state will get 250 MW of power in the first week of next month and another 400 MW in April'', he said.

Mr Veerasamy announced that the government would convene a meeting of industrialists on February 29 to discuss ways and means to meet the power shortage.

The government planned to divide the state into six zones and would ask the industries in each zone to declare holiday on one particular day instead of Sunday. ''This will help the state save 350 MW of power a day'', he added.

To a question, he said, the proposed hydro power plant on river Cauvery could not be taken up following opposition from Karnataka.

''As the Cauvery river water dispute is yet to be resolved, the Centre has proposed to set up the plant through one of its agencies,'' he added.

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