No respite from load shedding in five years: Shinde

India faces electricity shortage of 70,000 Mw and there will be no respite from load-shedding in the country in the next four to five years, Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has said.

"India, which generates 1,29,000 Mw power, has 70,000 Mw shortage. It will take at least four to five years to overcome this shortage," he said.

Shinde said it will not be possible to completely eliminate load shedding in the next four to five years.

During a visit to Margao city to dedicate an underground cabling work last evening, he told reporters that states will have to bridge their demand-supply deficit by generating electricity on their own. "Earlier state governments used to make power generation targets by reducing their deficit, but now onwards they will be given the target by adding the deficit."

The minister said the Centre was considering providing financial assistance to the states which are going in for their own power generation to meet the deficit. "Electricity capacity addition should have been done every year. But this was not done in the last 10 years, resulting in the current power shortage," Shinde said.

Stating that the future thrust for power generation would be hydel-based, the minister said the Himalayan ranges have capacity to generate 1.5 lakh Mw.

India's nuclear pact with the US will also give the much needed boost to the power sector, he said.

About Maharashtra's power crisis, Shinde said the scene would change after November. "Dabhol plant is providing 750 Mw and another 1,400 Mw will come from it by November."