By IANS,
Ranchi : Jharkhand Tuesday decided to appoint Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) as the consultant for establishing a Rs.1,500 crore transmission line in the state, an official said.
PGCIL will invite bidding for establishing the transmission line and supervise the work on it.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda who holds the power portfolio, had been pushing for the last one year for appointing PGCIL as the consultant. Deputy Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who is the finance minister, had been opposing this.
The Jharkhand cabinet Tuesday went ahead with the decision on the ground that PGCIL was a central government company and was charging just 11 percent of the project cost as its fee against 15 percent being demanded by others.
Power companies like the Damodar valley Corporation (DVC) and the Abhijit group are gearing up to produce more than 4,000 MW of power in the next two to three years.
“Jharkhand does not have proper transmission line to supply power to different parts of the state. The establishment of a transmission line is a must to supply power in both urban and rural areas of the state,” an official of the Jharkhand power department told IANS.
Jharkhand currrently faces an acute power shortage, producing only 300 to 400 MW against a requirement of 1,400 MW.