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Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that India would add two more 4000-megawatt (MW) mega power projects one each for Andhra Pradesh and Orissa each costing about USD 3.6 billion using a private-public investment vehicle. Shinde highlighted that these two will be in addition to the
5 proposed. All 7 projects are expected to start January 2007 and take 4 years to become operational. Shinde said that 18 American companies have expressed interest to bid on these projects.
The Government is also investing in research through the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) by investing in new Centers and working through premier institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). It is also planning to sponsor graduate and doctoral education of employees of major public-sector companies such as The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Power Grid Corporation, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited
(KPTCL), etc.
In related news, the Power Ministry also announced that Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab have been routinely over-drawing power from the national grid. Threatening to take these states to regulatory bodies, the Federal Government has advise those states to rely on using excess captive power capacities within their borders and not deny other states by over-drawing their allocation.
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