By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Central Government has decided to expand the horizons of the Restructured Accelerated Power Development Reform Programme (RAPDRP) so that small areas of the North East region enjoy the programme.
Addressing the 5th power conference on opportunities in power sector here in the city on Saturday, secretary of the Union power ministry P Umashankar said the Union Power ministry now has decided to include towns with five thousand population in the RAPDRP.
Earlier towns with a population of ten thousand was only eligible to be a part of the programme but the Central Government has decided to expand the programme after NE power minister led by NERPC Chairman AT Mondal continuously followed the matter with the power ministry.
Under the expansion of the programme all the headquarter towns of the North East region would also be eligible to enjoy the RAPDRP.
Union power ministry secretary P Umashankar also informed that the ministry has planned to add 4000 mw of power in the upcoming five year plans for the North East region excluding the state of Sikkim.
“Our plans will ensure that there is no shortage of power but we have to remove all the bottlenecks ,” he added while maintaining that the intra state roads in the region need to be developed at the earliest for the speedy implementation of the proposed programmes.
He also asserted that the Power ministry will ask for the formulation of a special power policy for the North East region in the 13th plan.
Later, the Union Minister of state for power KC Venugopal while addressing the gathering stated that power ministry has made a remarkable achievement by adding 42000 mw during the current plan and today the installed capacity is more than 182000 megawatts.
According to Venugopal, reduction of transmission and rural electrification are the two key areas which requires immediate attention of the Government. Earlier state power minister AT Mondal also stated that the North East region has the potential of becoming the power house of the country if the region is utilized for meeting the power requirements. The Power minister of Assam Pradyut Bordolai besides other officials of the Central Government and different stakeholders were also present during the conference.