Agartala : The World Bank would provide the major share of a Rs.5,111 crore project to develop and expand infrastructure in the power sector in six north-eastern states, top officials said here on Friday.
State-owned Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL) would execute the World Bank-aided projects in six of the eight north-eastern states of India.
“The World Bank-aided ‘North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project’ would be implemented in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura at a cost of Rs.5,111 crore,” PGCIL chairman-cum-managing director R.N. Nayak told reporters.
He said: “Of the Rs.5,111 crore, 50 percent would be provided by World Bank as a soft loan and the remaining amount would be shared by the central government and the concerned states. The central government funding would be as a grant.”
Of the Rs.5,111 crore, Assam would get the highest share of Rs.1,473.80 crore followed by Tripura (Rs.1,372.20 crore), Meghalaya (Rs.776.93 crore), Nagaland (Rs.729.42 crore), Manipur (Rs.442.22 crore) and Mizoram (Rs.316.76 crore).
The official said that to implement the project, separate agreements would be signed between the PGCIL and the concerned state governments.
He said that about Rs.4,400 crore would also be provided as grant separately by the union government to Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim to expand infrastructure in the power sector.
PGCIL and the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to execute the World Bank-aided project in the state.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who was present at the MoU signing ceremony, asked the PGCIL to implement the project without any delay and said that the state government would provide all logistical support to execute the mega power project.
“After completion of the project, transmission loss of electricity would be decresed substantially and the quality of supply of power would be increased significantly,” Nayak said, adding that to implement the project there are some land related problems in several north-eastern states except Tripura.
Under this World Bank-aided project, over 3,488km long high power transmission lines would be erected and many power transmission sub-stations would be set up besides modernising the existing transmission system.
The Tripura project would be completed within three years.
Tripura power minister Manik Dey, who was also present in the MoU signing meet, said that to achieve the state government’s target to provide power to all households in the state within the next few years the project would help to a great extent.
The PGCIL and World Bank officials earlier held talks and studied the power transmission scenario in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura for implementation of the ‘North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project’.
World Bank’s senior energy analyst Rohit Mittal, who was present at the MoU signing ceremony, said the project would help in the economic growth of the north-eastern region.