Bihar to get power to meet demand: Goyal

Expressing concern over acute power shortage in Bihar, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal today said that the state would get sufficient power to meet its consumption demand.
"As of now, the central power allocation to Bihar stands at 1913 MW, but the state will be given sufficient power to meet its consumption demand," he told reporters through video conference from New Delhi.
The generation of power has commenced at Barh Super Thermal Power Project (Stage-II) from Bihar and several other states will get power, Goyal said.
The minister said that a coal block plan has been prepared and sanction granted to an Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) with a generation capacity of 4000 MW, but for that the state government must provide land and water for the mega power project.

Conceding that the Plant Load Factor (PLF) of power plants operating in Bihar logging only 63.5 per cent of generation capacity as against national average at 71.25 per cent, the union minister said that the PLF in Bihar-based thermal power plants would be augmented to 80 to 85 per cent provided adequate coal supply could be ensured.
Expressing concern with lack of industrial activities in the state, Goyal said that increased generation from power plants would cater to both domestic and industrial requirements of Bihar.
He said that the Centre was seized with the issue of development of power sector in Bihar to address per capita electricity consumption in the state.

At the same time, the state government's role was equally important in development of power sector in the state with the electricity being on concurrent list, Goyal said, adding that as far as new power projects were concerned, Bihar would get its way.