Saturday, 11 March 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Seeks additional allocation of power from central pool in March
Concerned by the decline in the generation in hydro power plants and expected spike in demand during the summer months, the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a meeting with the Union Power minister RK Singh during his New Delhi visit on Friday. In the meeting the CM thanked the Union minister for his approval to provide additional 300 MW of power from the central pool in the month of March to the State. He also requested that additional 400 MW of electricity should be provided to the State in the month of March. The CM told the minister that there is a shortfall in generation of power in comparison to the demand due to delay in the completion of under construction hydro power plants due to the environmental issues and court cases. He added that this year less rainfall and snow in winters has started manifesting in decreased power generation of hydropower plants of the State. In the meeting Dhami requested the Union power minister to reconsider the THDC Khurja and said that the unalloted 113 MW of this power plant should be allotted to Uttarakhand which would help in strengthening the energy security of the State.
The Union minister assured the CM that help would be provided to the State for setting up of base load power plants in the states where coal is available.
He said that a meeting at the level of the Prime Minister’s office would be held soon to discuss the pending hydro power projects of the State. Singh suggested that the State should make its gas based power plant re-operational.
A decision to hand over the Lohari- Nagpala project to Uttarakhand was also taken in the meeting. He said that a working plan would be prepared by a central team after study of the demand and generation of power in the State. The union minister assured that reconstruction works in subsidence affected Joshimath would be done under the corporate social responsibility head of the NTPC.
The meeting was attended by the State’s Power secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram and the senior officers of the Power ministry.
