Hyderabad, August 26: The Minister for Major Irrigation, Mr Ponnala Laxmaiah, on Wednesday said that complete clarity on the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Kanthanapally and Dummugudem hydel power plants on the river Godavari would come by August 30 after receiving suggestions from the Genco experts.
Speaking to mediapersons in the Secretariat, Mr Laxmaiah said that the government has proposed to set up thermal power plants at Kanthanapally, Dummugudem and Singareddipally on the Godavari. The government has awarded the work of preparation of DPR of the projects to a company called Quantum. The company has submitted the DPRs and opined that thermal power plant at Singareddipally was not viable.
It was also confirmed that there was scope for setting up of thermal power plants at Dummugudem with 320 mw capacity and at Kanchanpalli with 280 mw capacity, he added. The experts of Genco studied the DPR and made some suggestions. He hoped that clarity on the DPRs would come by the end of this month. The tender process of the two thermal power plants would start after that, he added.
Reminding that the tenders were called already for the Kanchanpally thermal power plant, the Minister said that the process of tender submission was delayed due to DPR. The tenders would be opened after receiving the complete DPR. There was no truth in the spreading news that the tender process of the project was cancelled. He made it clear that the government would make available the power required for lift irrigation schemes. There was no question of going back on it, he felt.
Referring to the first signature of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on the file relating to free power supply to farmers after taking oath as Chief Minister in 2004, the minister made it clear that the State government was committed to continue free power supply to the farmers. In 2004, not only free power supply was extended to 24 lakh farmers in the State, but the then YSR government had also cancelled the arrears of power charges to the tune of Rs 1,240 crores. Later, the government had also decided to extend free power to ‘Tatkal Scheme connections’ in 2008. Now, free power has been extending to to 27 lakh pumpsets, including 17 lakh pumpsets in the Telangana region.
Mr Laxmaiah said that there were arrears of power charges of Rs 28 lakhs under ‘Tatkal Scheme connections’. As the drought situation prevailed in majority of the mandals, the collection of arrears was not taken seriously. There was no need to see the collection of arrears of ‘Tatkal Scheme connections’ this year from a microscope, he opined.
——-NSS