In spite of the difficult situation arising out of the strikes in Telangana, the state has witnessed an improvement in power generation and supply, giving relief to farmers and the common man alike.
“There were no unscheduled cuts or tripping throughout the state, except the announced cuts in different sectors, which are already in force. Effort are on to further procure coal from different sources and reduce the gap between power supply and demand position,” energy sector officials informed chief secretary Pankaj Dwivedi, during a review meeting held on Sunday.
The officials explained that the current demand was around 269 million units (mu) per day, while the state discoms were able to meet around 230 mu per day. The shortfall was around 39 mu, which was being managed by imposing power-cuts on the domestic sector during day and a two-day power holiday on industries, they said.
According to a press release issued by the chief minister’s office today, the generation from coal-based stations had been affected to an extent of 797 Mw from NTPC Ramagundam (out of which AP’s share is around 255 Mw) and 210 Mw from Simhadri due to reduced coal stock position.
NTPC Ramagundam units and Simhadri units are running near to technical minimum. One unit of 500 Mw capacity of NTPC Ramagundam was shut down on September 30 due to low coal receipts and another unit of 200 Mw capacity was shut down due to boiler tube leak on October 4, 2011, the release said.
The state had requested the Centre to allocate 100 per cent gas to the existing gas-based independent power producers (IPPs) so that they could run to full capacity. An additional 600 Mw would be available in case the request is accepted by the Centre.
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The central government has allotted 185 Mw power to Andhra Pradesh from the unallocated portion of central generating stations, while the Power Grid has enhanced corridor availability on the Talcher-Kolar transmission system by 500 Mw for 10 hours daily.
More buses on roads
The chief secretary was informed that while 900 buses were on the roads in Hyderabad on Saturday, about 1,000 were running today. All efforts are being made to convince the employees to get back to work to save the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC).
However, employees of APSRTC today decided to continue with their indefinite strike. The joint action committee of various unions met here to review the situation and resolved to continue the strike till the central government pledged to carve out a separate state. According to officials, the strike is causing a daily loss of Rs 7 crore to the corporation.
T-leaders heading to Singareni held
Telangana joint action committee (JAC) convenor, M Kodandaram, and other leaders, who were heading to Singareni mines in Khammam district to express solidarity with the miners, were arrested today.
Anticipating disturbance of public peace, the police stopped the Singareni bus yatra heading towards Kothagudem in Khammam. In all, 16 JAC leaders were arrested under prohibitory orders. They were shifted back to Hyderabad and were released.
Rs 1/kg rice from Nov
Meanwhile, the civil supplies commissioner was informed that all arrangements were being made to supply Rs 1/kg rice from November 1 and stocks would be placed with the ration shops on time.
The department is also getting ready to distribute about 2.5 million new ration cards during the Racha Banda Phase-II programme. The chief secretary also asked the excise department to constantly review supply, stocks and delivery from distilleries, the release added.