Power Sector Fund Needs In 9th Plan Put At Rs 350,000 Cr

The demand for electricity in India is estimated to grow at an average rate of 8 per cent per annum. This calls for addition of an incremental capacity of 10,000 mw to meet the growth in demand during the next decade, according to Union minister of state for power S Venugopalachari. The country now has a shortage of 17 per cent in peaking power.

The minister said in Mumbai on Wednesday that India required Rs 350,000 crore of investment in the power sector during the ninth plan period. Making a pitch for foreign investment, he said the initial years of reform had irrevocably changed India's image as an investment destination. For an interested investor willing to take a long-term view, India presented one of the best opportunities, he said.

 

About 200 expressions of interest have been registered amounting to an investment of about $85 billion and 78,000 mw of installed capacity. Of these, 51 proposals are from foreign investors and developers for a total of nearly 35,000 mw capacity involving an investment of around $40 billion, he added.

Anna Wechsberg of the Overseas Development Administration (ODA), which has sanctioned considerable aid to India to alleviate poverty, said a total of Rs 6,000 crore was transferred from the states to state electricity boards (SEBs) in 1994-95. If SEBs were to eliminate their losses, this money would be available for poverty alleviation programmes, she added.

The Maharashtra government is considering an expert panel's recommendation to corporatise Maharashtra State Electricity Board and to privatise distribution in the state.

Disclosing this at an