The State Government plans to take up power transmission projects worth Rs. 7,000 crore under the mode of public private partnership (PPP).
Of the project cost, the Centre’s subsidy will cover 20 per cent, with private players meeting the remainder, Electricity Minister Natham R. Viswanathan said here on Wednesday. ‘
He was inaugurating Elektrotec 2013 and Renergy 2013, an exhibition organised by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association.
Though the transmission infrastructure was adequate for existing projects, new projects were proposed to cater to generation projects of capacity addition in the State.
Describing the present shortage as temporary, the Minister said that while the demand was 12,000 MW, availability was 8,000 MW. The government was taking measures on a war-footing to bridge the gap.
The State is expected to permanently tide over the power problem by June this year. Trial operations had started at the 600 MW thermal power plant in Mettur. At Vallur, three units of 500 MW capacity each are coming up. The first unit started generation in December; the second would on stream in February and the third unit, May. The State’s share from these units is 1,175 MW.
Two units of 600 MW each re coming up at the North Chennai Thermal Power Station. One will start generation next month and the other, in June. The State is expected to get an additional 3,312 MW from these thermal power plants this year.
Considering the growing demand for power, it is proposed to have five super critical thermal power projects of about 660 MW each at Ennore, North Chennai, and Udangudi with a total investment of Rs. 12,000 crore.
With regard to the demand from industries for equitable supply, the Minister said not only multi-national companies, but also domestic companies that had minimum Rs.300 crore investment received special concessions in all States. The demand from these units in the State for uninterrupted power supply was only 180 MW.
Minister for Rural Industries P. Mohan said that micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) were the major employment providers after agriculture. About 40 per cent of the country’s exports came from the MSMEs and 45 per cent of the country’s manufacturing capacity was in the sector. In Tamil Nadu, as on March 31 last year, there were about 7.6 lakh registered MSMEs, providing jobs to more than 50 lakh people with a total investment of Rs. 40,000 crore.
