SHILLONG: Soccer crazy Meghalaya may have to miss some of the actions in the 2014 FIFA World Cup which is just 55 days away as the State Government has not given a firm assurance that it would be able to free the state from spells of load shedding which is a daily experience in the lives of the people.
But, the State Government is keen to provide uninterrupted power supply during the World Cup, scheduled to take off on June 12, Power Minister Clement Marak said. “We will definitely have to do something during the world cup,” he said.
Stating that he would hold the discussions with Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma next week on the power scenario, Marak said that the Government would try “every possible way” to ensure that people of the State got uninterrupted power supply.
It may be mentioned that the MeECL had resorted to load shedding since February and now people had to bear the brunt of at least four hours of load shedding every day.
According to Marak, there was still a shortfall of 45 MW 50 MW of power in the State though Meghalaya was getting around 30 MW from Palantana Power project. Meghalaya at the moment was managing around 170 MW of power against the demand of more than 200 MW in the ) whole state. The internal generation of the State was not enough.
Besides football, many cricket lovers in the State are also set to miss many matches of the Indian Premiere League 2014 due to load shedding.