 "Coal, power situation good: Piyush Goyal")
Giving a push to rural electrification, the power ministry has reached one-third of its target to electrify 18,000 villages by 2018. Piyush Goyal, minister of state for coal, power and renewable energy, said 6,000 villages had been covered and the government would meet the target on time. In the Budget for 2016-17, the finance ministry had increased allocation to Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana for rural electrification by Rs 8,500 crore. The total Plan outlay for the power ministry was also raised to Rs 12,200 crore from Rs 6,800 crore.
The Power System Development Fund, which is used for several power schemes primarily for gas allocation, had its corpus increased multiple times to Rs 1,900 crore from Rs 300 crore. Highlighting the achievements of his three departments, Goyal said enhanced coal capacity, power availability and push to renewable energy cumulatively spurred growth in the power sector.
“As on date, there is not a single power plant which is without coal. The growth of coal production in 2014-15 was 8.25 per cent and during April 2015 to February 2016, it was 9.2 per cent,” he added.
The minister also said that with the government exceeding the target for facilitating power transmission, power availability especially to the southern region had improved.
“By adding 22,800 cKm (circuit kilometres) of transmission network, around 5,900 megawatt (Mw) of additional power supply is now being transferred to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry.”
He said power transmission to the south was enhanced by 71 per cent in the current financial year and the ministry would increase it to 80 per cent, taking the power supply up to 9,000 Mw.
On Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana, one of the flagship power schemes of the government, Goyal said Northeastern states of Manipur and Tripura have agreed to join the power distribution reform plan.
The Power System Development Fund, which is used for several power schemes primarily for gas allocation, had its corpus increased multiple times to Rs 1,900 crore from Rs 300 crore. Highlighting the achievements of his three departments, Goyal said enhanced coal capacity, power availability and push to renewable energy cumulatively spurred growth in the power sector.
“As on date, there is not a single power plant which is without coal. The growth of coal production in 2014-15 was 8.25 per cent and during April 2015 to February 2016, it was 9.2 per cent,” he added.
The minister also said that with the government exceeding the target for facilitating power transmission, power availability especially to the southern region had improved.
“By adding 22,800 cKm (circuit kilometres) of transmission network, around 5,900 megawatt (Mw) of additional power supply is now being transferred to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry.”
He said power transmission to the south was enhanced by 71 per cent in the current financial year and the ministry would increase it to 80 per cent, taking the power supply up to 9,000 Mw.
On Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana, one of the flagship power schemes of the government, Goyal said Northeastern states of Manipur and Tripura have agreed to join the power distribution reform plan.