TN electricity minister to leave for Delhi tomorrow

Chennai, Sep 3 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Arcot N Veerasamy would leave for Delhi tomorrow to meet Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to help the state tide over the power crisis.

An official release here said Mr Veerasamy, accompanied by Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) Chairman Machendranathan, would meet Mr Shinde and request him to allocate additional power to the state from the central grid.

They would also meet the Minister of State for Coal Santhosh Bagrodia and request him to step up power generation in the Neyveli Lignite Power Corporation (NLC) and provide additional power to the state, the release said.

The Centre was already giving 100 MW to the state, but the state was facing a shortage of more than 2,000 MW against the demand of about 10,000 MW of power as the state could mobilise only about 8,000 MW of power.

The Electricity Board has resorted to power cuts throughout the state. Urban areas go without power for 90 minutes, while it is three hours in rural areas. In some places, it lasts for even five hours.

The state was facing the crisis as suddendly there was a fall in wind energy. Adding to the woes was shutting down of hydel power stations, due to failure of monsoon.

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