Ten days after the national capital was hit by a massive dust storm, the Centre on Monday has indicated that 3 mmscmd of gas has been kept ready to meet the power supply requirement of the city, and once Delhi Government sends out a request, it would be provided to it, Union Power Ministry sources have confirmed.
Though the work for restoring power in the National Capital Region (NCR) is almost complete, Power Ministry sources have said that 3 mmscmd of gas has been kept apart to meet the requirement of the national capital and if a request is made by Delhi Government, the supply will be made immediately to its Bawana Power Plant.
The gas supply has been sourced through National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), sources informed.Meanwhile out of the three main 220 KV transmission lines of Delhi Transco ltd (DTl) which were affected by the May 30 dust storm, two have been repaired, namely - Mandodla-Gopalpur and Bamnauli-Pappankalan lines. Official sources said that the third line - Bawana-Rohini line will be restored to normalcy by Tuesday (June 10).
At the same time, the Power Ministry has indicated that driven by the synergy witnessed between the Centre and the Delhi Government, it is ready to cooperate with all the State Governments in order to meet their energy requirement, irrespective of which party’s Government is ruling there.Simultaneously in the light of the fact that two major PSUs falling within the ambit of Coal and Power Ministry - Coal India ltd (CIl) and NHPC - requiring a full time Chairman to run their affairs, the Government plans to expedite the process of selection.
Official sources said that Coal and Power Secretaries have been ordered to move notes to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), urging it to fast track the process of selecting heads for both CIl as well as NHPC.This move comes after CIl’s Chairman S Narsing Rao recently resigned to take up a role in the newly-formed state of Telangana. Rao is awaiting final government approval to be relieved from his post and has been provisionally allotted the state cadre along with 43 other IAS officials.
Chairman and Managing Director of State-run THDC India RST Sai has been given the additional charge of state-run NHPC, which has been functioning without a full fledged head since more than two years.Meanwhile keeping in sync with Narendra Modi’s innovative style of governance, the Power Ministry also plans to hire private professionals to be a part of the decision making process of the Government.
Though as of now there is no definite role chalked out for these professionals within the Government, sources privy to the development said that the idea is to bring some smart thinking management gurus on board who can instill some out of the box thinking within the Government system of working.In the UPA Government, Nandan Nilekani, the founding member of IT giant Infosys, had joined the the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as its Chairman.
Government headhunter PESB’s norms do not prohibit private individuals from applying for vacancies in central PSUs. In the past, Najeeb Jung, who currently is the lt Governor of Delhi, had applied for the top job at ONGC.Jung, a former bureaucrat who was then based in london, lost out to RS Sharma in PESB interviews. Prabhat Singh, an executive at UK energy group BG Group, however ,made it to the grades when he got appointed as Director (Marketing) in state gas utility GAIl India ltd in November 2011.