Thaindian News

Agartala, Jan 2 (IANS) India is exploring the possibility of building transmission lines via Bangladesh to supply power to that country and to transmit electricity between the northeast and the rest of India, union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said Sunday.”We should be very cooperative to meet the growing needs of electricity both in India and our neighbouring countries,” Shinde said at a seminar here on ‘Opportunities in Power Sector’.

“According to the projections of the 17th Electric Power Survey, over 100,000 MW of power would be required by the end of the 12th (Five Year) Plan (2012-2017),” he said.

The minister said that 50 percent of the capacity addition of 66,000 MW during the 12th Plan was expected to be contributed by the private sector. This sector contributed 10 and 32 percent to power generation in the 10th and 11th plans respectively.

He said several private-public projects were being executed for manufacturing power plant equipment, including turbines. “Non-availability and delayed supply of equipment was one of the major reasons for sluggish capacity addition,” he said.

The day-long seminar was jointly organised by a media group and the Tripura chapter of the Institutions of Engineers (India).

Urging the private sector to invest in power transmission, Shinde said: “After the success of electricity distribution by the private sector through a franchisee model in some parts of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh has decided to hand over power distribution in Agra and Kanpur to a private company on franchisee basis.”

He said that since India’s independence in 1947, power generation had increased from about 1,400 MW to about 167,000 MW.

According to official documents, about 64 percent (108,363 MW) of the country’s power comes from thermal (coal, gas and oil) sources, 24.7 percent (37,367 MW) from hydro sources, 2.9 percent (4,560 MW) from nuclear plants and 7.7 percent (16,787 MW) from renewable energy sources.