The maiden visit of Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal to Chennai on Saturday saw a host of announcements from him, aimed at providing fillip to the State’s power sector, which witnessed an acute power shortage not long ago.
The State would get assistance from the Central government’s two new schemes — Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Integrated Power Development Scheme. While the first scheme would provide Rs. 924 crore for improving infrastructure in the rural areas of the State, the second would give Rs. 363 crore for the benefit of nine towns.
As a mark of recognition of Tamil Nadu’s work in renewable energy sector during April 2010-March 2014, the State would get an incentive of Rs. 1,051 crore. This would be as per the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission.
The Union Finance Ministry had agreed to provide the funds.
“We are hoping to release the money this month,” the Union Minister said, after meeting Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and his team at the Secretariat.
Tamil Nadu would get 100 megawatt (MW) of unallocated power from the second unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant too.
Pointing out that the State had also been given 100 MW of unallocated power from the first unit, Mr Goyal said Tamil Nadu would be the recipient of a major share from the unallocated power of the plant.
This would mean that the State’s overall share from the two units of the plant would be 1,125 MW out of 2,000 MW.
During their interaction with the Union Minister, the representatives of the State government stressed the need to provide immediate allocation of corridor for supply of power to Tamil Nadu under Long Term Access as Tamil Nadu entered into agreement for power purchase of 3,330 MW by December, 2013.
It was also pointed out that the Government of Tamil Nadu had already raised its objections to the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003 to separate carriage and content on the ground that it would result in cherry picking of high value consumers by the private players.
