New power capacity in this fiscal will fall short of the target by 5,000MW.
Power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today blamed the lag on the environment curbs on coal mining.
The additional capacity of 15,000MW is the highest for any single year, though the Planning Commission’s target is 20,539MW. It will be the fourth year running that the capacity addition target will be missed.
“We have already added about 10,460MW by now (April-February) and hope to exceed 15,000MW by the end of this fiscal. This will be the highest capacity addition in any year,” Shinde said.
The minister now fears the curbs imposed by the environment ministry will prevent the industry from meeting the target of 62,000MW in the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012).
“I am a little upset now because if I don’t get coal and other fuel because of environmental restrictions, I will not be able to even meet the revised capacity addition target of 62,000MW during the 11th Plan.”
He said issues such as lesser availability of coal, whose production has been affected in the last one year because of the environmental norms, had been referred to the group of ministers headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
“We have suggested what to do and the matter is under consideration. Let’s wait,” Shinde said on the sidelines of a conference on power trading.
“About 42-43 coal blocks allotted to private power companies have been cancelled by the environment ministry as these blocks fell within the no-go belt. This will result in delay in meeting this plan period’s (2007-12) target,” officials said.
Domestic power firms have imported about 10-11 million tonnes (mt) of coal so far this fiscal, Shinde said, adding that his ministry had fixed an import target of 35MT during the period.
No comments:
Post a Comment