Efforts on to ease power crisis

The government is making all efforts to mitigate the effects of the power crisis in Maharashtra by augmenting generation and purchase from other sources, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said today.

"Summer will not be much difficult as there is all possibility of certain improvement in the power scenario," Deshmukh told reporters here.

He said the two thermal power plants at Parli and Paras will commence generation of 250 Mw each later this month.

Similarly, the Dabhol plant, which is supplying 700 Mw power, would supply up to 1,400 Mw by April-May and 2,100 Mw by October this year.

Work on laying pipeline for the Dabhol project would be completed by April 1, he said.

"The power scenario in the entire country is dismal as there has been a shortfall of about 70,000 Mw while that of Maharashtra is 5,000 Mw," Deshmukh said.

He said the government was finalising power purchase agreements with Tatas and Reliance to further ease the problem.