Date:09/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/09/stories/2008040955221500.htm

Business

Power capacity addition, top priority for Jairam

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Newly-appointed Union Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said the Finance Ministry had given its clearance to the ambitious ‘accelerated power development and reforms programme’ (APDRP), aimed at reducing ‘aggregate technical and commercial’ (AT&C) losses, and soon the Union Cabinet would take it up for approval. He also said his focus would be on capacity additions to improve the power generation scenario.

Talking to reporters here, Mr. Ramesh said the Rs. 50,000-crore scheme would help in bringing down huge AT&C losses, a major cause for concern, to less than 15 per cent in urban areas by the end of the XI Plan, thus, registering a marked improvement in the power sector. At present, the AT&C losses were around 39 per cent.

Asserting that the new APDRP would boost power sector reforms, Mr. Ramesh, who is also Minister of State for Commerce, said that enhancing generation capacity by setting up new projects and upgrading old ones would be his main focus. He would also ensure implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana and promote and strengthen power sector PSUs. “I will soon be meeting the heads of all power sector PSUs,” he added.

Expressing dismay over the overall power scenario, Mr. Ramesh blamed the previous National Democratic Alliance Government for not able to achieve the ambitious generation targets. “In the X Plan (2002-07), 41,000 MW was promised but the actual delivery was only 21,000 MW. We missed targets in previous Plan periods also. Against the target of 31,000 MW in the VIII Plan, the capacity addition was 16,000 MW, while in the IX Plan, only 19,000 MW was added against the target of 40,000 MW,” he pointed out.

Mr. Ramesh, however, said he would ensure that the target of adding 11,000 MW this fiscal, as envisaged in the XI Plan, was achieved. In the last fiscal, 9,300 MW was added against the target of 12,000 MW. “If 11,000 MW is not added at the end of the second year of the current Plan period, then I have not done my job,” he said.