What should have been a shot in the arm for the power-starved State during the crucial summer months is not to be as the plans of Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd. (KPCL) to add 1,500 MW of new power to the grid by April have been put off to September.
The first generating unit of Yeramarus power station, which will have two generating units with a capacity of 800 MW each, should have begun generating power by April if things had gone according to plan.
Similarly, the third unit of Bellary Thermal Power Station (BTPS), with a capacity of 700 MW, was supposed to begin generating from April.
This had given rise to the hope that such a huge quantum of additional power in the middle of the summer would ease the supply situation. But, the process at the Yeramarus unit is getting delayed due to various issues, such as the clash between local and migrant labourers and hurdles in land acquisition, according to highly placed sources in the KPCL.
Similarly, power generation by the third unit of the BTPS has slackened owing to the delay in importing some of the key components, such as the turbine, a senior official said. Even if generation commences in April, the new thermal units would take a minimum of three months to achieve stability.
