The Central government will, in the next six months, invest Rs. 1 lakh crore to increase the transmission capacity, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy, said here on Friday.
He was here to launch the Prime Minister’s insurance and pension scheme at the Corporation Kalaiarnagam.
This investment was keeping in mind the long-term needs of the country – for the next 20 years – and not three or five years. Likewise, he said, on May 11 his Ministry would start the process to auction natural gas to enable gas-based power plants to start generating power. This would help power-starved States get more power.
To increase the transmission capacity, Mr. Goyal said that his Ministry had asked the Power Grid Corporation of India to expedite the Rs. 30,000-crore work to increase transmission capacity across India.
The work was progressing at a rapid pace but the Central government needed the State governments’ help in acquiring land and granting right of way to set up the transmission lines.
The Ministry would also invest Rs. 26,000 crore to transmit 6,000 MW of power to the southern States. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana would stand to gain. And, this work would be completed in the next two years.
On Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi taking on the Central government in and outside Parliament, he said that they were welcome to work hard for the people, just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working hard to uplift the people.
