Shillong, July 18: Power minister AT Mondal has raised the issue of fund constraints for transmission projects approved by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in states like Meghalaya and called for an alternative scheme to overcome the hurdle.
Addressing the 29th North Eastern Regional Power Committee (NERPC) meeting in Guwahati, Mondal advocated for introduction of a scheme similar to North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP) so that financial burden of any transmission infrastructure upgradation is not passed on to the power consumers.
Held under the chairmanship of Mondal, the meeting was attended by power ministers of Mizoram and Tripura, representatives of other North Eastern states and various power entities of the country.
The power ministers raised several issues concerning the entire North Eastern region.
Meanwhile, the CEA representatives while agreeing in principle the proposal of Mondal asked for DPR from other states of the region.
Mondal also strongly objected that the minimum requirement of manpower in State Load Despatch Centres (SLDCs) notified by the Ministry of Power should not be linked to funding under Power System Development Fund (PSDF).
He also urged the member states to submit a resolution to Ministry of Power for reviewing the minimum requirement manpower to be posted under Emerging SLDCs.
The member secretary of NERPC agreed to non-linkage of the PSDF funding with minimum manpower requirement.
Meanwhile, the minister raised another issue pertaining to reserve requirements mandated by NLDC which if implemented would have a severe impact on the power scenario in Meghalaya as the capacity equivalent to the reserve requirement cannot be used for meeting the state demand.
Based on his objection, the member secretary accepted the demand to take up the matter with MoP and CERC for relaxation of the reserve requirements.
Further, the power minister contested that Sikkim, which as of now for the purpose of power related schemes is tagged under Eastern Region, should be tagged with north-eastern region and included in NERPC.
This will result in allocation of power projects coming up in Sikkim to North Eastern states, he said.
Besides, Sikkim having a similar geography as hilly regions of North East, most of the schemes under transmission and distribution implemented in Sikkim are similar to that of other states in the region.
