Power generation target won’t be met, admits Shinde

India will once again fall short of meeting its ambitious eleventh five-year plan target of increasing power generation capacity to 78,000 mw by 2012, just as it missed the 10th plan goal, power minister Sushilkumar Shinde admitted in New Delhi on Monday.

His poor prognosis was echoed by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who also told newspersons that capacity addition would be short of target by around 8,000 MW.

"We are hopeful of adding 70,000 MW power generation capacity, but with some extra effort we may be able to get to 78,000 mw capacity as targeted in the eleventh plan," Ahluwalia told reporters.

Shinde said, "There would be a gap of 6,000 to 7,000 MW between the targeted power generation capacity addition of 78,000 mw in the 11th plan and actual delivery on the ground due to coal and gas shortage."

But Rakesh Nath, head of the Central Electricity Authority, was more pessimistic. According to him, the power shortfall could be as high as over 21,000 mw. "Projects with a high degree of certainty (of completion) will add 57,000 MW ... even some of the planned projects will slip over into 2012-13," said.

In the 10th plan period ending 2007, the country had fallen short of the capacity addition target by almost 50 per cent. India added 20,950 mw of capacity, against a target of 41,110 mw. India's peak power deficit is seen as having widening in the fiscal year ending March to 12.6 per cent from 11.9 per cent a year ago.