Seemandhra power crisis resolved

Electricity consumers drawing power from the southern grid got some respite with the electricity employee unions withdrawing their strike following talks with chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Power supply in the Seemandhra districts was restored late on Monday night although there were intermittent power cuts on Tuesday as the crisis deepened and the gap between demand and supply increased.

Supply from APTransco was 8100 MW against Tuesday's power demand of around 11,500 MW. But with the employees ending their strike, power supply is now expected to return to normal.

Earlier on Tuesday, APGenco director (thermal) S Anjaneya Rao said the Dr Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station (NTTPS) at Vijaywada had completely shut down.

"The seven units of NTTPs, with an installed capacity of 1760 MW, have shut down. Rayalaseema Thermal Power Project, with installed capacity of 1050 MW, has also completely shut down," he had said.

Both the plants are expected to be functional today.

Meanwhile, with the curfew in place in parts of the state, shortage of fuel is likely to hit the districts of coastal Andhra Pradesh, parts of Chhattisgarh and Orissa as the Vizag Oil Tankers Association has decided to join the agitation from next week.

South Central Railway officials said all trains were running as per schedule, and they were introducing extra trains to clear festival rush.

Except in Vizianagaram town, where curfew remains in place, normal life has resumed in Srikakulam, rest of Vizianagaram district, Visakhapatnam and West Godavari, and highways leading to Chennai and Bangalore have opened in the south coastal districts, from Krishna to Nellore.

The central government, meanwhile, reconstituted the group of ministers on Telengana dropping HRD minister M Pallam Raju and bringing in defence minister A K Antony, health minister Gulam Nabi Azad, petroleum minister Veerappa Moily and rural development minister Jairam Ramesh.

The new GoM has union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, defence minister A K Antony, finance minister P Chidambaram, minister of health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad, minister of petroleum and natural gas M Veerappa Moily and rural development minister Jairam Ramesh as members.

There are now seven members in the GoM against the earlier envisaged 10.