Five eastern states to have more coordination for electricity

Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Sikkim decided to form a committee for more effective coordination in power sector

Five eastern Indian states of Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Sikkim on Saturday decided to form a committee for more effective coordination among them in the power sector.

The meeting decided to form a committee headed by Chief Managing Director of Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Limited Pratyay Amrit for better coordination in the power sector, Bihar Power minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav told reporters.

"A compact team for eastern region is needed for better coordination among the states in power sector," Yadav said after two-days meeting of Eastern Region Power Committee (ERPC) concluded on Saturday.

The meeting was also attended by officials from Bhutan and those from NTPC and others.

The five states have similar physical features and are facing same kind of power problem. Hence better coordination among them was necessary to overcome the crisis, the minister, who was specially invited at the concluding session, said.

Yadav said he made a strong case for inclusion of Nepal in the grouping, like it was done with Bhutan as power generated in the Himalayan country passes through Bihar enroute to Delhi.

Pratyay Amrit, who is currently heading the Power committee for Eastern region, briefed the participants about rapid strides made by Bihar in the power sector.

"From a power availability of about 500 MW in 2005, the state today has a power supply of over 3000 MW, which is expected to touch 4000 MW by end of this year," the minister said.

The Bihar power minister claimed that Bihar would have power availability of 17,000-18,000 MW by 2020-21 after the new units go into operation and the capacity of the additional units in the existing projects are expanded.

The meeting approved setting up of seven grid sub-stations of 220/132/33 KV.

Besides, it also gave its consent to laying down 23 transmission lines whose length would be 853 CKT KM. Laying of such a long transmission line would help take electricity into far off rural areas, Amrit said.