Rihand power project goes on stream

Union Power Minister Shushil Kumar Shinde today gave to the nation, National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC's) 1,000 Mw Stage- II of Rihand Thermal Power Project at Rihand nagar in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh today.

UP's share in new plant will be close to 40 per cent. Sonbhadra, which borders MP and Jharkhand, is a naxalite militancy affected district. On this occasion Shinde said the electricity requirements of both UP and Bihar would be addressed by the Centre on priority basis.

"At present 4,000 Mw of electricity was provided to UP from the Centre and the state government has been told to go for capacity addition in power generation through new units, both in private and public sector," he said.

"We are ready to provide whatever help UP will require to improve power availability in the state. Be it the Anpara-C or Anpara-D, the state should expedite the process of setting up new power plants," he added. Shinde also said with commissioning of power projects at Tehri, Unchahar, Vindhyachal and Rihand, the overall availability of power in UP was bound to improve.

Shinde however sought to blame the UP government for the power crisis.

He said while the NTPC's Plant Load Factor (PLF) stood at 87 per cent, followed by the national average at 75 per cent, that of UP was far below at 58 per cent. "I will hold a meeting soon in UP to monitor the pace of power reforms in the state," he added.

He also said both Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) and NTPC were directed for accelerating the pace of Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme in UP.

The ambitious project envisages electrifying all villages of the country by 2012. The minister, however, made it clear that rehabilitation of population displaced by new power projects will be streamlined, besides taking concrete steps to check environmental hazards of power generation.

With the commissioning of the Stage-II of the 1,000 Mw power project at Rihand , the plant has reached the ultimate capacity of 2,000 Mw. With the commissioning of Rihand, the total power generation capacity of NTPC has now been enhanced to 26,194 Mw.

The new power generation facility will benefit Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Chandigarh.

The Union Minister who dedicated the new power plant in the presence of UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav later flew to Siddhi (Madhya Pradesh) for the commissioning of 500 Mw unit of NTPC-Vindhyachal.

With the commissioning of the ninth unit of NTPC-Vindhyachal, the aggregate generation of three NTPC projects in the region "� Rihand, Singrauli and Vindhyachal was now pegged at 7,260 Mw.

Mulayam Singh Yadav said he along with his son Akhilesh Yadav, MP from Kannauj, would soon be traveling across the nook and corner of naxal-infested Sonebhadra district.

CM said trek will be aimed at gauging the performance of development initiatives announced in Sonebhadra earlier, besides promoting the ambitious schemes of the government, including the Kanya Vidya Dhan Scheme.He added UP had made all round progress under the present regime.