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Total investment to the tune of about Rs 1,10,000 crore is projected to flow to the beleaguered energy sector in Uttar Pradesh by 2016-17.
The investment would come from the state sector, private sector and joint venture projects spanning power generation, transmission and distribution.
The Akhilesh Yadav government has accorded due emphasis to power as it is the bedrock of any economic development. Power shortage has often been citied as the main impediment towards faster economic growth in UP.
Power generation projects would take lion's share of about Rs 65,000 crore investment in different projects either proposed or underway, UP principal secretary energy Sanjay Agarwal said here this evening.
The state government is targetting to ramp up power availability to over 20,000 megawatt (mw) by 2016-17 from current level of 10,000 mw from all sources.
Besides, transmission projects would entail investment of over Rs 22,500 crore in the private and public sectors. Much of this investment would flow towards setting up new sub-stations to increase capacity.
Power distribution projects would get total investment of over Rs 9,100 crore, while rural electrification projects would receive investment purse of Rs 12,500 crore.
"The state government is keen to improving energy sector infrastructure and providing uninterrupted power supply to people. The three times hike in the power sector budgetary support to Rs 28,000 crore is a testimony to this fact," UP minister of state for power Yasar Shah said.
Besides, low power availability, UP is also grappling with high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of about 42 percent. The state targets to tame this figure to 5 percent by 2017.
AT&C losses are sum of technical loss, commercial loss and shortage due to non-realisation of total billed amount. It includes power theft and losses during transmission and distribution of power.
Yesterday, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had met union minister of state for power and coal Piyush Goyal in New Delhi and sought Rs 15,000 crore from the Centre for various energy projects in the state.
