Andhra to add 626 Mw power this year

Chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy on Friday said efforts were on to augment the power situation by adding 626 Mw this year.

Addressing the state on the occasion of the 62nd Independence Day celebrations, he said the government had already laid the foundation for the 1,600-Mw Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Power Plant in Nellore last month.

The state would get about 1,600 Mw from the ultra mega power plant coming up near Krishnapatnam. This apart, thermal power plants aggregating 10,000 Mw capacity too are coming up in the private sector at various ports.

The 54 SEZs notified in the state are expected to bring Rs 33,600 crore investments in 16 districts and create direct employment for about 9,40,000 and indirect employment for 1.6 million people.

The IT exports, which stood at Rs 5,000 crore in 2004-05, touched Rs 26,000 crore in 2007-08 and the industry is now providing employment to 122,000 people and another 500,000 indirectly.

The food production in the state increased to 19.7 million tonne last year as compared with 13.5 million tonne during 2003-04. For the irrigation projects, the government has earmarked Rs 16,500 crore this fiscal. It had in the last four years spent Rs 32,327 crore on irrigation programmes, the chief minister said.

The state’s share in poultry accounted for 30 per cent in the country while fish exports stood at 40 per cent In all, the state grew at 10.6 per cent last year.