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Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram
By Our Special Correspondent
Addressing a `Meet-the-Minister' programme organised by the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club and the Department of Information and Public Relations, Mr. Sivadasan said that the Board was yet to receive budgeted funds from the Government. This included portion of the loan received from the Asian Development Bank that totalled about Rs. 375 crores. Discussions were on regarding the release of the money. The Minister ruled out corporatisation of the State Electricity Board and privatisation of the transmission and distribution sectors. He said that the Electricity Act passed by Parliament gave option to the State Government to go in for privatisation or retain the public sector. The provision that generation and distribution should be in the hands of separate companies was not applicable to existing boards. The Board could continue as such with separate profit centres for generation, transmission and distribution. There would be separate budgets and common budget as required. The assets and liabilities had already been divided among the profit centres. Mr. Sivadasan said that the Board would invest Rs. 2,100 crores for various generation, distribution and transmission projects in the coming years. It was adding capacity to generate 663.30 million units, including generation from units commissioned during the past two years. The newly commissioned projects included the Vazhikadavu diversion, Kuttumkal captive power project and the Malampuzha project. The work on the Kuttiadi augmentation project, which was stalled for the past 14 years, had been restarted and this would be commissioned in a year's time. The work on Chembukadavu, Urumi and Malakkara projects was almost complete. Work had commenced on Kuttiyadi Additional extension (100 MW), Mankulam (40 MW) and Thottiyar (70 MW) projects. Generation of 436 million units was additionally targeted from investment by the private sector in generation. The Board was aiming for "cheapest power for the longest period." He said that an alternative was being drawn up for the Silent Valley project downstream at Pathrakadavu. This project would have a capacity of 78 MW. He said that the Board could reduce transmission and distribution losses by five per cent by improving the transmission system, energy auditing and checking of power thefts. The Government was drawing up plans for a power highway linking Kozhikode, Manakkathara and Thiruvananthapuram 400 KV stations besides speeding up work on new transmissions connecting the Kerala grid to neighbouring ones. System Average Interruption Duration Index and Analysis had been introduced to reduce power failures. He said that the efforts of the Board to reduce its debt burden and expenses had shown results. A sum of Rs.100 crores could be saved in administrative expenses by measures such as discontinuation of leave surrender and holiday wages and abolition of unnecessary posts. A sum of Rs. 360 crores was saved by selling of costly power from the Kayamkulam project to Tamil Nadu and getting additional allocations from the Central pool at cheaper rates. Still, the failure of monsoon had resulted in an additional expenditure of Rs. 468 crores.
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