Telangana becomes 16th state to join UDAY

Telangana has become the 16th state to join UDAY scheme for revival of discoms and an agreement in this regard will be signed in 15-20 days, said Power Minister Piyush Goyal.
"I am delighted that Chief Minister has agreed for giving in principle approval to join UDAY," Goyal told reporters after his meeting with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao here.
He further informed that the total debt of Telangana discom is around Rs 12,500 crore and a formal agreement would be signed in the next 15-20 days so that a part of the loan can be transferred to state books.

Rao was here to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Goyal to lay foundation stone of NTPC's Ramagundam Thermal Power Project of 1,600 MW (2X800).
Goyal said that the tendering process of the project is done and it is expected that the 1600 MW would be completed by 2020.
The Centre has also given the go ahead for setting up three more units of 800 MW totalling 2400 MW at Ramagundam, he said.

He assured that the project with total capacity of 4,000 MW will be implemented by 2021. The Chief Minister has also agreed to provide 600 acres of land for the project.

"The Centre has also approved setting up of 1,080 MW power plant by the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation. We will soon write to Environment Ministry so that the four units of 270 MW available with BHEL can be supplied for setting up the project at Manuguru in Khammam district in two years time," Goyal said.
Goyal has also urged the Chief Minister to have more solar parks in the state in addition to 2,500 MW planned capacity.
"Telangana wants to add new thermal power capacity of 5,880 MW in next 3-4 years. They have asked for coal linkage. We are working on finalising new coal linkage policy for power plants. The new policy will be decided by the Cabinet," he said.

He also informed that the Centre has approved tapering bridge (short term) coal linkage of 2.5 million tonnes as the allocated coal block Tadicherla-1 will take some time to become operational.
The coal block was allocated to Telangana State Power Generation Corporation. Now the company will get fuel supplies and generate power.