At a meeting held here to celebrate the 18th Foundation Day of the Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC), Energy Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo repeatedly emphasised the need to safeguard the interests of the employees who are working in remote areas for years to generate profit for the corporation.
Sahoo said the combined efforts of those few thousand employees are saving the Government from public ire by generating affordable power and making the State power-surplus.
Referring to the issue of power cuts, the Minister hinted that the public grievance due to load-shedding is more because of their expectation of uninterrupted power not being met as the power cuts are for small durations. The distribution infrastructure needs upgradation to meet the demands of the rapidly-increasing number of consumers, and that is why load-shedding is inevitable till additional capacity is created, he said.
Sahoo said that more than 1,400 MW of power is in the process of addition to the OHPC’s generating capacity and it includes pump storage systems too which would soon become quite affordable as energy tariffs keep climbing.
Foundation-stone of the proposed Shakti Bhavan would be laid very soon and companies dealing with energy distribution would be housed there, he added.
OHPC Managing Director Sahadev Khatua said the corporation has maintained its track record of profits and the process of setting up the proposed Green Energy Development Corporation is on track. Finance Director Santosh Kumar Sahoo spoke about the dedication of the corporation to do better.
Director Human Resources Rajesh Sharma stressed on the OHPC’s contribution to the prosperity of the State. Director (Operation) Miraj Kumar Mishra gave the vote of thanks. Awards were given away to individuals and units for their commendable performances.