India needs uninterrupted power supply: Shinde

New Delhi, Mar 20 (UNI) Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today stressed that the country expects the power sector to provide uninterrupted power supply to the consumers and thereby keep the national economy on fast track.

Stating this at the National Awards Presentation Function to Power Utilities for Meritorious Performance during 2006-07 here today, he said both the Central Government and State Governments have been continuously attempting to improve the performance of power sector.

''There has been improvement in all fields of the power sector.

However, due to the increasing demand of energy, the country is still facing energy shortage of 9.5 per cent and peak demand shortage of 15.8 per cent.

The function was attended by the Mr B K Chaturvedi, Member (Power), Planning Commission; Mr Anil Razdan, Secretary, Ministry of Power; and Shri Rakesh Nath, Chairman, Central Electricity Authority, apart from the senior officials from the Ministry of Power.

Mr Shinde urged the power engineers, technicians, and operating personnel to continuously make improvements in their performance in the coming years for the betterment of National Economy and the lives of our people.

The Minister congratulated all the award winners and presented Gold Shield, Silver Shield, Bronze Shield in the field of thermal power station performance, hydro-power station performance, transmission system availability, early completion of transmission power projects and power distribution, for the meritorious performance in their fields.

Several power utilities have been honoured with National Awards for their meritorious performances for the year 2006-07. These include NTPC, Powergrid, APGENCO, Tata Power, Reliance Energy, APTRANSCO.

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