Slackened hydropower generation may derail the Power Ministry's target of adding 62,000 MW of electricity generation capacity by March, 2012, a senior official said today.
The government may fall short of the goal by about 4,000 MW, as some of the hydropower projects would miss their commissioning deadline, which would be spilled over to the 12th Plan Period (2012-17).
"About 3,000-4,000 MW of the 62,000-MW would be missed as hydro projects like Koteshwar are getting delayed," Power Secretary P Uma Shankar told reporters at a FICCI event here.
He, however, did not elaborate the factors delaying hydro power generation.
The government had earlier planned to add 78,000 MW of power capacity by the end of the 11th Plan, which the Planning Commission had scaled down to 62,000 MW.
This may now be further curtailed to 58,000 MW as the hydro power projects may not be able to meet their commissioning schedule.
Koteshwar hydro-electric power project is a 2,400 MW project in Uttarakhand.
Shankar said the power sector would attract an investment of about $300-400 billion by 2017 for provision of adequate and reliable supply of power at reasonable prices to all segments of the society.
However, the sector has to deal with a lot of challenges like timely supply of main power plant equipment, fuel availability and environment and forest clearances.
Coal continues to be the mainstay of power generation in the country, coal-based plants account for nearly 53 per cent of the installed capacity.
"The demand for coal for the sector is likely to go up from 445 million tonnes during the current fiscal to 532 million tonnes next fiscal and further to 850 million tonnes by March, 2012," he said.
The Power Ministry through state-run MMTC and STC would import 85 million tonnes of coal in 2011-12.
"We are importing 46 million tonnes in 2010-11 and it would rise to 85 million tonnes in 2011-12," he added.
