[India] Govt looks to brighten up families below poverty line

from The India times

The government plans to offer free electricity connections to all designated below poverty line (BPL) families across rural India in its bid to provide power to all households by ’12. The announcement was made here on Sunday by Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, just 48 hours before Budget ’07 which is likely to underscore ‘universal power access’ and ‘rural electrification’ among core infrastructure initiatives of the UPA government.

Free power connections will be offered to rural BPL households under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidutikaran Yojana, a move that is likely to cost the power ministry a hefty Rs 4000 crore. But Mr Shinde was quick to clarify that the government was “only offering free connections to designated-BPL families, not free electricity.”

Mr Shinde was in town on a whistle-stop trip shortly after completing the foundation stone-laying honours for NTPC’s upcoming 500MW unit at Farakka that will come up over the next 36 months. The 500MW Farakka-Stage III unit will take total capacity at NTPC’s Farakka super-thermal station to 2100MW.

In this light, he said, “NTPC’s decision to add a third 500MW unit in Farakka is virtually at the behest of Union defence minister Pranab Mukherjee as it happens to be within his constituency (Jangipur). Thanks to his stature in the present UPA government, we have been able to overcome all coal-linkage and water-related roadblocks that were coming in the way of NTPC’s 500MW Farakka expansion.”

While NTPC will source nearly 5m TPA of coal for Farakka-Stage III from Orissa’s Brahmini coal block, Union power secretary RV Shahi, who was present, conceded that that power ministry was in talks with the Union water resources ministry to ensure uninterrupted water availability to NTPC at Farakka during summer, especially since completion of Tehri dam had reduced water discharge levels downstream.

Future water availability is crucial for any expansion plans at Farakka, considering NTPC is often compelled to shut down its 500MW Farakka units for non-availability of water during summer months.

The Union power minister also indicated that the naphtha-based Dabhol generation would be available from May 1 at Rs 5.5 per unit as had been reported earlier in the media. At the outset, he said “only the 740MW Block II would generate power by May since the Blocks I and III were not in working condition as yet.”