Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has ruled out private participation in power generation in the separate Telangana State as a measure to strengthen the financial position of the State-owned generating company.
Addressing a meeting of Telangana Electricity Engineers’ Joint Action Committee (TEJAC) on Saturday, his first after the Cabinet approval of Telangana State, Mr. Rao said expanding the power sector would be his priority after the State was formed.
He added that he would strive to add 15,000 MW in less than five years.
A series of plants (each 600 MW x 2) will be set up in the coal belt from Ramagundam to Manuguru, the TRS chief said.
Mr. Rao stated that he would ask the Central generating stations to fill the 47 per cent gap in availability of power for Telangana by making additional allocation.
Telangana should become a surplus power State because Hyderabad was poised to become the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR), which will convert the city into another Silicon Valley.
The city will not only get ITIR but other major projects owing to its development story.
He promised to regularise the services of all the 20,000 contract workers of the electricity department, besides creating another 8,000 posts as the power sector in Telangana would be on an expansion mode.
The power utility will go by the name of Telangana Electricity Board.
He said he did not want to enter into a conflict with coastal and Rayalaseema leaders any more because the Telangana State was going to be formed.
Population
The people of Telangana had a problem with the population in the other region because of the latter’s claims on Hyderabad. They had no problem with communities from other parts of the country that lived here without any ado.
The meeting was also addressed by Peddapalli MP G. Vivekanand and TEJAC chairman G. Deviprasad Rao.
