Andhra may get Rs 8000 cr for power reforms

The Centre is likely to provide a grant of Rs 8,000 crore to Andhra Pradesh under the Accelerated Power Development Reforms Programme (APDRP) during the Eleventh Plan, said chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. The state will submit a detailed project report to the Centre in this regard in December.

The Rs 51,577-crore APDRP project aims at bringing down transmission and distribution losses to less than 15 per cent and will cover towns with a population of over 30,000. The chief minister said he would write to the Centre to reduce the population coverage to 10,000 to extend the project to mandal headquarters also. About 142 towns in the state would be eligible for the scheme.

Under this, baseline data and IT applications for energy accounting would be set up besides modernising and strengthening 11 kv level substations, separating transformers from feeders and agricultural loads from mixed feeders, and replacing old meters. Initially, 50 per cent of the project cost would be provided as grant and the remaining as loan, which could be converted into a grant based on specified targets achieved. Investments incurred by the distribution companies on IT initiatives during 2007-08 and 2008-09 would be reimbursed.

Union minister of state for energy Jairam Ramesh said a 600-Mw coal-based power project would come up in Adilabad district for which the entire coal would be supplied by Singareni Collieries.