Bihar plans to invest Rs 28,000 crore on power sector in next 5 years

Bihar has the highest T&D losses in the country. According to the government data, the state loses almost half of its power even before it reaches to the consumers

Bihar government has decided to invest Rs 28,000 crore in the next five years on revamping the power sector in the state.

Out of this amount, the state government has planned to spend Rs 10,000 crore on replacing its obsolete power infrastructure.

The state government has planned to connect all of every village in Bihar with electricity in next couple of years.

"We have taken up the work as a challenge," Power minister Vijayendra Yadav told Business Standard, "and we are every steps possible to complete work in time. Our first priority is to connect every village with electricity by 2015. Besides, we are also working on revamping our old transmission and distribution (T&D) system. Our goal is to completely replace the old obsolete infrastructure with a new and modern one."

The amount will also be used to improve generation in the state.

The minister added, "We are working on all the aspects. The generation is also very important. We want to increase our own capacity, so that our reliance on central pool can be reduced. We want to provide electricity to the last man. Hence, the transmission and distribution sector is also needed to be completely refurbished. Therefore, we are investing majority of the funds on this."

The state government has planned to invest Rs 10,000 crore in revamping its old and obsolete transmission and distribution network.

Bihar has the highest T&D losses in the country. According to the government data, the state loses almost half of its power even before it reaches to the consumers.

"We aim is to bring this loss to 10 percent in next five years. Therefore, we have decided to invest Rs 5,500 crores on replacement of the old transmission lines and construction of new grids and substations. At the same time, the state government will invest Rs 4,500 crore on fixing our distribution network," told the minister.

The state government has recently signed a MoU with the PowerGrid Ltd., with an aim to revamp its transmission network.

It has also decided to give the distribution network of almost 70 towns in the state in the private hands to improve its revenue collection.