labels: power, economy - general
Power shortages threaten growth: PMnews
28 May 2007

Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh today said that power shortages had to be addressed urgently to aid the economy sustain an annual growth rate of 9 to 10 per cent.

Speaking at a conference in New Delhi on energy, Dr Sing said that 13 per cent energy shortage in the peak season, "does not look very promising" and that India needed a "crash programme" to raise capacity to eliminate shortages by 2012.

"We have not been able to make a decisive breakthrough in ensuring high and sustainable rates of growth of this sector and improving its financial health," he said.

The PM said that the current level of losses in transmission and distribution, ranging between 30-45 per cent in many states, "threatens the financial health of the sector. A large proportion of these losses are due to theft. Power theft is the cancer of the power sector."

India plans to add 78,577 megawatts of power generation capacity by 2012, mainly from coal-fired units, to tide it over an acute shortage.

To provide power for the Indian popultion, as envisaged under the National Electricity Policy, by 2012 and increase the per capita power availability by nearly 50 per cent would require a 100,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity.

 
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Power shortages threaten growth: PM