Karnatka to buy pvt power at Rs 4.50/unit

BL Bureau

Bangalore, Feb. 2

In order to overcome the severe shortage of power, the Karnataka Government has decided to purchase 280 MW of power at the rate of Rs 4.50 per unit from private power suppliers.

Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, the Chief Minister, Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa, who also holds the finance and energy portfolios, said due to lack of proper planning on the part of the earlier governments, the State was currently experiencing a power deficit of about 200 MW.

Tenders issued

“In order to improve power supply, our Government has issued short-term tenders and given letter intent to purchase 280 MW of power at the rate of Rs 4.50 per unit,” he said. It was decided to purchase 200 MW from Jindal Power Ltd and 80 MW from Tata Power Company.

In addition, the Chief Minister said tenders would be floated shortly to supply additional 200 MW power. Also, tenders would be floated in a week's time as a mid-term measures to buy power for the next two or three years. The Government planned to generate a minimum 5,000-7,000 MW , he said.

Stating that the BJP Government has added 1,252 MW to the installed capacity during the last 19 months, he said 961 MW was added during the Dharam Singh Government and 373 MW during the Kumaraswamy regime.