Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Feb 24, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Feb 24, 2002 |
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Industry & Economy
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Power Government - States Foundation stone for 400 kV transmission system laid: Prabhu advocates user charges Our Bureau
(From right) Mr Suresh P. Prabhu, Union Minister for Power, Mr Bandaru Dattatreya, Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and Mr T. Devender Goud, State Home Minister, at the 400-kV power transmission system near Hyderabad on Saturday.
HYDERABAD, Feb. 23 THE Union Minister for Power, Mr Suresh Prabhu, on Saturday laid the foundation stone of a 400-kV transmission system at Ghanapuram, near here, which is to be taken up by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL). The system is part of the Ramagundam Stage-III project of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and it provides an additional corridor for transmission of power to the Southern region. He said his Ministry and the Andhra Pradesh Government were studying the possibilities of setting up a 1,000-MW power unit at Shankarpalli for which the Government had already provided land. He described the PGCIL project as a milestone in the national grid, which needed an investment of Rs 80,000 crore. Mr Prabhu said it was necessary to collect reasonable user charges to ensure commercial viability of the generation and distribution of power. An investment of Rs 8 lakh crore was necessary in the power sector to manage the demand side and energy conservation. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, said PowerGrid was spending Rs 550 crore on the project. The State would take the lead in power sector reforms and was trying to ensure financial viability of projects. The cost of one unit of power generated by BSES at Samalkot would work out to Rs 1.70 and that by NTPC Rs 1.90/95. Ms Jayawantiben Mehta, Union Minister of State for Power, said Andhra Pradesh was on the threshold of turning into a `power pradesh'. Mr R.P. Singh, CMD of PGCIL, said the new transmission system would provide a lifeline for power transmission to Andhra Pradesh and other States in the South, removing bottlenecks. PowerGrid and Andhra Pradesh had tied up for improving the telecommunications system. NTPC is augmenting the 2,100-MW Ramagundam super thermal power project by another 500-MW unit under stage-III. With the 1,000 MW of power that could be imported from the Western region through the Chandrapur HVDC back-to-back station, the total availability of power at Ramagundam will be 3,600 MW. The transmission system comprises the Ramagundam-Hyderabad 400-kV D/C line (200 km), Hyderabad-Kurnool-Gooty 400-kV S/C line (300 km), Gooty-Neelamangala 400-kV S/C line (250 km) and the Khammam-Nagarjunasagar 400-kV S/C line (150 km). The project, which is scheduled to be completed by 2004, will help meet the power deficit in the southern States. Work on the Southern Region Transmission Systems I and II covering the Sompeta-Kolar section of Talcher-Kolar HVDC line (1,074 km), 2,000 MW of HVDC terminal station at Kolar, 400-kV AC lines beyond Kolar (746 km) and a 400/200-kV substation at Hosur is expected to be completed by June next year at a cost of Rs 3,865 crore.
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