Naveen urges centre to give 500 MW of power from unallocated share

Naveen urges centre to give 500 MW of power from unallocated share 09/04/2012

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,BUREAU CHIEF,THESE DAYS,ODISHA
ODISHA NEWS/BHUBANESWAR



Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday urged the Union Government to provide 500 MW of power to Odisha out of the unallocated share at least for a period of two years to resolve the present power crisis.


The Chief Minister in a letter to Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that Odisha is entitled to an additional 500 MW of power from NTPC, Kaniha Stage-II. Against this entitlement, the Union Power Ministry should consider providing the same out of the unallocated share available with them to meet the power crisis of the State, he said.


Shinde who was here on Saturday and met the Odisha Chief Minister had discussed many issues relating to the State’s interest on power sector and solved some matters. However, the Chief Minister in his letter raised six more relevant issues seeking his positive response to implement the decisions expeditiously.


Patnaik reiterated the demand to allocate an additional 700 MW of power from Bedabahal Ultra Mega Power Project in Sundergarah district towards 50 per cent of State’s share. Stating that as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the NTPC will set up a state of the art medical college hospital at Sundergrah with 400-bed capacity, to be upgraded to 500 beds subsequently, he urged Shinde to expedite the project for early implementation.


He also said that PGCIL had decided to set up an ITI each in Sundargarh and Angul districts as part of the CSR for the new 765/400 KV pooling stations. The ITIs should be started soon, he said.


Patnaik reminded that to safeguard the interest of the State, the NTPC would provide a firm assurance as part of the power purchase agreement for the Gajamara project that it would develop their coal block in time to supply coal to the project. The NTPC should not use imported coal or high cost coal which may increase the variable cost and the unit price beyond the indicated price of `2.17.