Bihar govt expects power supply to rise to 5,500 MW by 2015

Bihar government, which is working on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's promise that he would not seek vote in Assembly elections in 2015 if he failed to improve availability of power, today said the state's electricity availability would increase to 5,500 MW by next year.
"By June 2015 the electricity supply in Bihar will increase to 5500 MW," state's Power Minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav told reporters here.
The supply is around 3,000 MW at present. The Minister said plan is to make Bihar a power-surplus state by 2018-19.
He said work was in progress for improving generation as well distribution of power in all 38 districts.

Yadav exuded confidence that by 2015, the state would be able to install power network in habitations having a population of 100.
"We are working to provide at least 10-12 hours of electricity in far off localities by 2015," he said.

The Bihar Power minister said that 300 new power stations would be added to 545 existing ones in the next two years.
Power Secretary Sandeep Paundrik said that an additional 1.5 lakh transformers are being set up to enhance supply.
He said to cut down revenue loss, the Power department is appointing a revenue franchise for every one or two villages which will serve electricity bill and deposit the payment in power offices.