KCR hands over cheque to BHEL for power plant

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday handed over a cheque of Rs 417.16 crore to BHEL for Damaracharla Yadadri ultra mega thermal power plant.

The 4,000 MW ultra mega power plant is coming up at Damaracharla in Suryapet district at a cost of Rs 20,379 crore.

Handing over the cheque to Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) Chairman and Managing Director Atul Sobti, the Chief Minister said the project should be completed within three years.

He said for transparency and timely completion of the power plants, the works were entrusted to the public sector company.

Noting that the land required for the plant was acquired and all the permissions including the environmental clearance were given, the Chief Minister said the work should be speeded up keeping in view the substantial increase in demand from the coming year.

"We have decided to give 24 hour power supply to farmers from next March. Construction of the lift irrigation schemes is going on. Several new industries are coming up. Need for power in other sectors is also growing up," he said.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, said there will be an additional need for 3,500 MW. Keeping this in view, the state embarked on construction of major power plants.

Of all the plants, Yadadri plant is very important. "Work on the 5 x 800 MW plants should be taken up simultaneously and parallelly and should be completed in three years," he said.

Telangana State Power Generation Corporation CMD Prabhakar Rao told KCR that the works on the 800 MW Kothagudem plant will be completed in two or three months while Manuguru plant will be completed by the coming year.

--IANS

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