By IANS
New Delhi : The government will meet the power generation capacity addition target envisaged for the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12), Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Thursday.
He was briefing reporters on the progress of the government’s 11th Plan power generation capacity addition programme.
The power ministry envisages a capacity addition of 78,577 MW in the current Plan, he said.
“During the period between April 2007 and January 2008, a total of 7,263 MW has already been added. Power generation projects totalling 60,214 MW are under construction,” the minister said.
“And orders will be placed by developers by this March for implementation of power generation projects of 10,950 MW,” Shinde said.
In addition, 14,000 MW power generation capacity was being added as captive power plants, he said.
The government has recently put in place a new policy to attract more private investment in the hydropower sector, Shinde pointed out.
“This will help in speeding up the harnessing of the country’s hydropower potential,” he said.
“The new policy exempts states from complying with the stipulated tariff bidding guidelines for allocating hydropower projects till January 2011. This will encourager private players to undertake implementation of hydroelectricity projects in remote areas,” the power minister said.
“The government has also made additional provisions like earmarking part of the revenue from the sale of power generated from hydel plants for the development of social infrastructure for the people affected by project implementation,” Shinde said.
On the Rajiv Gandhi rural electrification scheme, he said the government had sanctioned electrification of villages with a population of hundred households, which was earlier limited to villages with minimum population of 300 households.