Nitish calls for one India, one power rate
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar iterated his demand for one nation one rate for purchasing power from Central sectors, as he dedicated stage-II 500MW (2x250 MW) of NTPC Barauni Thermal Power Station and unit 1 (660 MW) of the NTPC Barh Super Thermal Power project, in presence of RK Singh, Union minister of power and new & renewable energy on Saturday.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar iterated his demand for one nation one rate for purchasing power from Central sectors, as he dedicated stage-II 500MW (2x250 MW) of NTPC Barauni Thermal Power Station and unit 1 (660 MW) of the NTPC Barh Super Thermal Power project, in presence of RK Singh, Union minister of power and new & renewable energy on Saturday.
Kumar said the consumer power tariff would reduce if India were to have one rate for purchasing power from Central sectors. Presently, Central utilities like the NTPC charge different rates for power supplied to states and union territories from its different plants. The rate depends on many factors, including the age of the plant.
Bihar will get 402 MW power (60.91% share) from the 660 MW Barh unit 1. Two other units of 660 MW each will come up over the next two years.
Kumar took a trip down the memory lane as he recollected how the Barh thermal power plant had come up due to his initiative and the roadblocks that came in way.
The 3 x 660 MW stage I of the Barh super thermal power project plant was conceptualised in 1999 and was initially expected to have come up in 2007-08. However, the deadline was stretched an earlier firm of Russian failed to fulfil its commitment.
Earlier, Singh said that the installed power capacity in Bihar would go up as its demand for power was increasing. The NTPC group had an installed capacity of 7970 MW in Bihar and another 1980 MW is under construction.
Singh said the 1320 MW Buxar power plant of the SJVNL would be ready before its scheduled deadline of June 2022.
He also assured that Bihar would get sufficient Central grant out of the ₹3 lakh crore planned to modernise the distribution management system in India.
Singh said Bihar had been allotted ₹24,000 crore, second only to Uttar Pradesh, for strengthening of power projects, including setting up 326 new power sub-stations and adding capacity of existing power station.
Singh said in keeping with increased capacity of thermal power, efforts were also on to improve availability of coal.
Barh has total installed capacity of 3300 MW out of which 1320 MW is already under commercial operation since March 2016.
To accelerate the development of the power sector and increase the availability of power and cost efficiencies for the people in Bihar, the state government had transferred the Barauni Thermal Power Station to NTPC Ltd on December 15, 2018.
Rajiv Ranjan, MP from Munger, Alok Kumar, Union secretary power and Gurdeep Singh, chairman-cum-managing director, NTPC, directors of NTPC and other senior officials were also present at both the events.
