New Delhi: The government on Thursday approved Rs 5,200 crore scheme for strengthening power transmission and distribution network in six North-east states.
“The Cabinet today approved North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSlP) for Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland for strengthening of the intra state transmission and distribution system,” Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.
The scheme has been approved at an estimated cost of Rs 5,111.33 crore including capacity building expenditure of Rs 89 crore.
The scheme is to be taken up under a new Central Sector Plan Scheme of Ministry of Power.
The scheme is to be implemented with the assistance of World Bank loan and the budget of the Power Ministry.
The project will be funded on 50:50 basis (World Bank loan: Government) except the component of capacity building for Rs 89 crore for which the centre will bear entirely.
As the Intra-State Transmission and Distribution systems in the North-Eastern States have remained very weak, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) developed a comprehensive scheme for the North East Region in consultation with the Power Grid Corporation and State Governments concerned.
The project shall be implemented through Power Grid in association with the six states in 48 months from the date of release of funds to the company.
After commissioning, the project will be owned and maintained by the State Governments.
Presently, all the six states are connected to transmission network at 132 KV and below. The 33 KV system is the backbone of power distribution system in these states.
In order to reduce the gap between the requirement and availability of the intra-state transmission and distribution system, it is necessary to provide 132 KV/ 220 KV connectivity to the states for proper voltage management and lower distribution losses.
Similarly, the distribution system which mainly relies on 33 KV network would be strengthened substantially.
“Implementation of this project will create a reliable state power grid and improve its connectivity to the upcoming load centres, and thus extend the benefits of the grid connected power to all the consumers,” an official statement said.
The project would also provide the required grid connectivity to such villages and towns of the States, where development of distribution system at the downstream level has been taking place under government sponsored schemes.
This shall increase the per capita power consumption of these states, which is lagging behind the average national consumption and shall contribute to the economic development of the North-Eastern Region. (PTI)