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Rail Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu today said regulators across sectors should be allowed to work independently but should be accountable to Parliament. The comment comes on the back of the latest controversy over the Speaker of Delhi's Legislative Assembly calling the chief of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) over high power tariffs.
"Regulators should be independent but should be accountable to Parliament. That accountability is part of the independence," Prabhu said in response to a question on the need for regulation in infrastructure sectors asked at CII's National Conference and Annual Session 2015 today.
Speaking at the same event, power minister Piyush Goyal said India's power sector would witness close to $250 billion investment over the next five years, including $50 billion in distribution segment alone. He said the government is working to address all the issues of coal and gas availability and renewable energy financing simultaneously.
"Come 2019, India's power production would be at least 2,000 billion units, coal production of 1.5 billion tonnes, renewable energy growing five times to 300 billion units and a transmission and distribution network that will reach every house at affordable rates," Goyal said.
Highlighting the achievement of the power sector in the past year, Goyal said electricity generation has grown by 10 per cent, 22,700 Mw power capacity has been added, peak shortage is at 3.6 per cent, and coal production has grown by 8 per cent, the highest in 23 years.
The minister also announced he is confident that India will not have to import any coal after 2.5 years; NITI Aayog is working on a 100-year Energy Security Plan for India; solar power cost will come down to less than Rs 4 per unit; and energy efficiency savings will lead to 100 billion units of power saved by 2017.
