Power crisis: Centre ups Delhi quota

With a grim power situation in hand, Delhi has again knocked at the Centre’s door to bail it out, reports Moushumi Das Gupta.

With a grim power situation in hand, Delhi has again knocked at the Centre’s door to bail it out. And with the Delhi elections due in November, the UPA government did not disappoint it.

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The Union Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said to tide over the power shortfall in the city during this summer, his ministry is planning to increase Delhi’s share in Centre’s unallocated power reserve from the existing 22 per cent to 40 per cent. This means that instead of the existing 299 MW, Delhi would be getting 450 MW from the Centre’s share.

Ramesh also announced that Delhi would be regularly getting 200 MW of power that was promised by Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) from next month onwards. Though Delhi had signed a power purchase agreement with DVC to supply 400 MW power to the city during summer, DVC had expressed its inability to honour the commitment citing problems in their power units.