October 07, 2008

Indian power ministry plans outlay for 2008-09

It is reported that India’s power ministry has planned an investment outlay of INR 40,460.10 crore for 2008-09. This includes internal extra budgetary resources of central public sector undertakings amounting to INR 34,460.10 crore and gross budgetary support of INR 6,000 crore. The net non plan outlay for the current fiscal is INR 75 crore.

In outcome budget of the power ministry, NTPC's outlay of INR 13,588 crore will result in commissioning of 1,320 MW. The outlay will also result in substantial physical progress of the projects scheduled to be commissioned during 11th Plan period.

The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation has outlay of INR 4,385.19 crore which will be largely used for ongoing schemes such as Subansiri lower, Uri II, Parbati II, Parbati III, Sewa II, Chamera III, Nimoo Bazgo, Chutak, Kishenganga and Teesta Lower Dam III & IV and new proposed projects of Kotlibhel 1A 1B and II.

The outlay for Damodar Valley Corporation will have an outlay of INR 6,612.65 crore which will result in commercial operation of 250 MW Meija unit VI. In addition, unit VII and VIII of 500 MW of Chandrapura thermal power stations will also get synchronized. Letter of award for new projects like Koderma stage I with 1,000 MW, Durgapur steel thermal project with 1,000 MW, Raghunathpur thermal project with 1,200 MW has already been placed in 2007-08.

Under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana, the power ministry has set the target of electrification of 25,000 un electrified villages and offering electricity connections to around 6 million below poverty line households in 2008-09.

In the transmission sector, the PowerGrid Corporation of India, which is the central transmission utility, has an outlay of INR 8,040 crore to commission 5,500 circuit kilometer of transmission lines involving 6,285 MVA of transformation capacity.