Power crisis: Centre comes to TS rescue

Central agency to fund `20,000 cr for power projects

Hyderabad: In its effort to a give a major fillip to Telangana State which is reeling under severe power crisis, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), Government of India, has come forward to extend a loan to the tune of Rs 20,000 crores for various projects under Genco, Tran- sco and other power distribution companies.

Chairman and Managing Director, REC, Rajiv Sharma conveyed this decision to Chief Minister K Chandra- shekar Rao in a meeting held at Secretariat on Tuesday.

KCR discussed the power scenario with Sharma and Telanagana GENCO CMD D Prabhakar Rao who was also present.

He felt power requirement would be huge in view of ITIR project, new irrigation projects and water grid set to come up in future.

Meanwhile, authorities informed him that available power in Telangana was 4417 MW against the existing demand of 6,700 MW. They informed that alternative arrangements were being made to address the shortage issue.

In response, KCR directed GENCO CMD to present available production capacity of less than 5,000MW of power needs to be increased through long term, short term and medium term strategies.

Prabhakar Rao informed the CM that the State would get 2,800 MW of additional power by the end of next year from three sources - 600 MW from Bhupalpally plant, 1200 MW from Singareni plant in Jaipur, Adilabad district and 1000 MW from central agencies. He noted that deficiency would be overcome by these three sources and any extra power generated in future could be treated as surplus.