Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said that any State which does not allow nuclear plants to operate should not be eligible to obtain nuclear power from another State.
The Minister was in the city to hold review meetings with Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and State Electricity Minister P. Thangamani. Addressing mediapersons at the Secretariat, he said that the Tamil Nadu government had requested that maximum power from Kudankulam units 3 and 4 be allotted to the State.
“I’m quite in favour of that and we are drawing up a new power allotment formula, under which we would try and extend maximum power from the Kudankulam units 3 and 4 to Tamil Nadu,” he said.
The locals have been protesting against the Kudankulam power plant since the beginning, and there is still a certain degree of opposition to new units being set up. But despite that, the expansion plan is on, with support from the State government.
Mr. Goyal said that the losses [of Tangedco] in Tamil Nadu have fallen from ₹14,000 crore to ₹3,000 crore in the last three years. “UDAY [Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana] has made T.N. a power surplus State. In the days to come, Tangedco [Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation] and Tantransco [ Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Limited] should start making profits,” he said.
Touts GST
The Minister expressed hope that the State would make huge savings, thanks to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the reduction of the cess on coal, by which Neyveli Lignite Corporation alone will reduce its costs by ₹508 crore. This would lead to savings of about ₹1,000 crore for Tamil Nadu, he said.
“In three years, the Modi-led Centre has doubled the transmission capacity to the southern grid. In the next three to four years, the transmission capacity would be expanded by 300%. Compared to 3,450 MW in 2014, there will be 18,000 MW transmission capacity to south India by 2020,” he said.
