To ensure that the summer season in Telangana remains free of any power cuts, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao directed the officials to take necessary measures and purchase additional power from other sources including the Kayamkulam project of Kerala. The Chief Minister who reviewed the power situation with the officials ordered the release of Rs350 crore to Telangana Power Transmission Corporation to purchase additional power.
KCR wanted the officials to ensure that there was no power shortage for any category of consumers this year. While reviewing the demand supply gap, the Chief Minister asked the officials about the quantum deficit and availability of power to be purchased from open market. Prabhakar Rao, chairman and managing director of Power Transmission Corporation informed the Chief Minister that 400 MW was readily available for purchase from the NTPC Plant at Kayamkulam and it can be procured anytime.
Additional power can also be purchased from the private companies, he said. Pointing out that the temperature will go up next month, the Chief Minister said that he wants uninterrupted power supply to save the people from hardships. Telangana had suffered huge power shortage this time last year leading to imposition of 4 to 8 hours of power cuts all over the State. But this time, the Government is taking necessary precautionary measures to avoid any crisis situation.
The Government projections show that the power situation will start easing from last week of May when the power consumption by agriculture sector will come down. At the same time, the Government hopes that Telangana will become self-sufficient in power generation from next year and will turn into a power surplus State by 2017-18. Meanwhile, Singareni Collieries was trying to ensure that its thermal power plant at Jaipur in Adilabad district starts generation by March next. In a letter addressed to all the employees and workers of Singareni Company, its chairman and managing director N Sridhar said the construction of the 1,200 MW project will be completed by December this year and power generation will start from March 2016.