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bigstockphoto.com – photographers – Angelika Smile and Pokaz
FACED with acute power shortage in the state,
the Tamil Nadu chief minister, Ms J Jayalalithaa,
has requested the Prime Minister, Mr
Manmohan Singh’s intervention for allocating
1,000MW of additional power to ease the crisis.
Ms Jayalalithaa said she had previously
requested 1,000MW of additional power for the
state for a period of one year, until the central
power utilities, which supply power to Tamil
Nadu, commenced production.
Of this, only 100MW was recently allotted, she
said. “This inaction and non-responsiveness to
our
repeated
requests
during
this
unprecedented power crisis only shows
callousness and indifference on the part of the
centre,” she said in her letter to Mr Singh.
She said major power projects to be executed
by central PSUs such as BHEL, NLC and NTPC
were ‘inordinately delayed’ and to offset a part
of the deficit, the state government was trying
to procure power from other states.
“However, non-availability of a transmission
corridor has deprived Tamil Nadu of receiving
the contracted power. To cite some examples,
Tamil Nadu has contracted a capacity of
500MW from Gujarat. Of this, only 203MW
could be transmitted. The 727MW of night
power contracted from the Dadri power
station (Uttar Pradesh) of NTPC was also
curtailed.”
The state contracted around 1,750MW of
power for March this year, she said.
India
Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2012
23
State’s call
for power to
ease electric crisis