SC asks Delhi for power status

The Supreme Court today gave the Delhi government two weeks to state the status of the Tata Power's proposed 1,000 Mw gas-based project, which has been pending since 2003.

The court also asked the government to detail the short-term steps it proposed to take to meet the power crisis in the national capital.

The directions, issued by a bench headed by Justice K G Balakrishnan, came when it was pointed out by the court-appointed counsel that there was a daily shortage of 600 to 900 Mw in the city.

Counsel Ranjit Kumar said the government has admitted in its affidavit that Delhi would continue to experience power problems till 2011. This means that unless there was a short-term plan for power generation, there would not be sufficient power even during the Commonwealth Games scheduled for 2010.

The government had told the court previously that Delhi had surplus power. Later it retracted and said there was a deficiency. It again went back to its earlier stand of saying it had enough power.

The present stand is the power crisis would continue till 2011. However, it does not yet have a short-term plan. Of the total power generated, 40 per cent is lost to illegal connections, the counsel pointed out.

This case started in 1999 when the Supreme Court acted on news reports that eye surgery at AIIMS here could not be conducted because of power shortage in the hospital.

The court had giving various directions in this matter, but even after seven years, the situation has not improved.