TNN reported that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mr Akhilesh Yadav is all set to push the centre to get coal linkages for some of the pending power projects including the ones that are proposed through the MoU route. The demand is likely to be made during his meeting with the deputy chairman of Planning Commission Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
On July 17th 2012, officials of the energy department made a presentation of the looming power crisis in Uttar Pradesh, often leading to law and order problem.
The state government is also likely to seek an overall structuring of the power sector by pressing the Centre to facilitate loans for setting up of power plants. However in the wake of fuel crisis, the projects have been in doldrums with banks often refusing to grant loans.
This will be second time that UP chief minister will be seeking Center's assistance in solving the power crisis the state has been facing for the past many years. The crisis has only turn into a major blockade for the state that is looking to boost its industrial growth.
Distribution losses, often touching a figure of 30%, too has been a cause of concern for an ailing power sector. The malady has only caused to accumulate revenue losses to the tune of over INR 20,000 crore.
This is despite repeated state government grants to the UP Power Corporation Limited to bail out the utility from an ever yawning gap between the energy supplied and revenue recovered.
Official sources said that the state government is likely to promise the Centre of bringing down the distribution losses by at least 7%.
The state government, as a matter of fact, has already decided to revise power tariff, essentially for the commercial establishments.
The issue of coal linkages has been crucial for the state government given its projections to add another 5,000 MW of power. UP as on date, generates around 4,200 MW of power, while it gets another 4,000 MW from the central pool. Another 1,500 MW come through the co generation companies. This is still insufficient to cater to the demand that has been touching a mark of around 12,000 MW.
The state government has largely been relying on the private sector to improve the generation capacity. Though, setting up of power plants through the MoU route came in handy, it did not made much headway in the absence of coal linkages.
In fact, Mr Akhilesh Yadav had been blaming the former BSP government of not doing enough to get the coal linkages for the power plants. As a result the over all exercise largely remained on papers.
Source - Times News Network
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