Foreseeing a worsening of power crisis, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday wrote to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking allocation of 2,830 MW of power from Central generating stations to the State as an interim arrangement and dedicate the entire power from the Kudankulam nuclear power project to Tamil Nadu.
In her letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh, Ms. Jayalalithaa said the State was going through a severe power crisis of a magnitude unprecedented in recent memory. While the demand was about 12,000 MW, supply was only about 8,000 MW, leaving a gap of 4,000 MW.
Despite her repeated requests for additional allocation of power from the time she took over as Chief Minister for the third time, the Centre’s response had been totally negative. Even when she asked for 1,000 MW, the State was allocated a meagre quantum of 100 MW, citing transmission constraints, she noted.
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Therefore, the entire power generated by Central generating stations in the State by Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), the Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam and the joint venture plant between NTPC and Tangedco at Vallur — totalling 2,830 MW — should be allocated to the State as an interim arrangement, as there would not be any transmission constraints, till the new projects in the State are commissioned, Ms. Jayalalithaa demanded.
Considering the extraordinary lengths to which the State government had gone to ensure the smooth commissioning of the atomic power project at Kudankulam, the Chief Minister demanded that the Centre dedicate the entire power of 2,000 MW from this project on successful commissioning.
Ms. Jayalalithaa reminded the Prime Minister of a recent meeting with her when he was gracious enough to acknowledge the great effort made by her government in handling the very complex and large-scale law and order issues and continuous agitations that were conducted with the sole objective of stalling the commissioning of the nuclear power project.
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This request was not unreasonable and not without precedent, as the first two units of 500 MW each produced by the Central generating station at Simhadri in Andhra Pradesh, constructed and operated by NTPC, had been entirely dedicated to Andhra Pradesh, she said.
She asked the Centre to adopt the same yardstick to the Kudankulam power station too in the interests of people of Tamil Nadu.