UDAY will lead to Rs 1.8 lakh crore savings annually: Piyush Goyal

Union Minister of State for Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal has asserted that the newly unveiled debt restructuring plan for DISCOMs, will eventually lead to a saving of Rs 1,80,000 crore annually.

Named as UDAY (Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana), which also means dawn in English, the package involves a massive bailout plan for debt ridden Discoms, besides measures to reduce power thefts, align consumer tariff with generation cost and promote energy efficiency.

Goyal held an extensive investors interaction meeting in Mumbai on Monday evening to explain the new power sector reform initiative of the government.

In a packed house attended by FIIs, Private Equity Funds, Sovereign Wealth funds, Insurance companies, rating agencies, analysts and Mutual funds among others, he expressed confidence that UDAY will find pan-India acceptance.

"Almost all the state power ministers heartily welcomed the new initiative during the Conference held in Kochi last week" he said.

Goyal further said "it is a bottom up approach, not a top down approach.

He said the states will be assisted and hand held to bring down the cost of power by improving their distribution, transmission and sub transmission network, reducing the cost of power through coal rationalisation and also bringing down the interest cost substantially.