Power crisis: Jayalalithaa seeks PM intervention

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has sought Prime Minister’s intervention in the allotment of 1,000 Mw of power transmission lines to enable the state to receive power contracted by the TN electricity board from other states. She also repeated the earlier request to allot 1,000 Mw from the central pool to overcome the power crisis.

While TN is trying to procure power from various states on a contract basis to offset part of its power deficit, the non-availability of a transmission corridor has deprived it from receiving the contracted power, she said in a letter to the Prime Minister.

As an example, she added that while the state had contracted a capacity of 500 Mw from Gujarat, only 203 Mw could be transmitted.

“The state has contracted to an extent of 1,750 Mw of power from outside Tamil Nadu for the month of March, 2012. However, the corridor availability has been released to the extent of 350 Mw only by the central load despatching authorities. This has caused indescribable anguish in Tamil Nadu,” said the letter.

The power deficit situation in Tamil Nadu has been aggravated by the prevailing corridor congestion. The problem of corridor congestion has also been represented to the central authorities several times, it added.

The letter said while the chief minister’s memorandum on June 14, 2011, in person, requested 1,000 Mw of additional power for the state for a period of one year, only 100 Mw was allotted.

The state is reeling under an acute power crisis, while major power projects planned by public sector undertakings, namely, BHEL, NLC and NTPC, have been “inordinately delayed,” added the letter.