SHILLONG, March 31: Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma on Thursday said the state will not have to pay anymore to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) as the latter has agreed to reallocate almost 70% of power to Tamil Nadu.
Based on the power purchase agreement of July 13, 2007, the NTPC was claiming more than Rs 531 crore as dues from the state-owned corporation.
“In the power purchase agreement, Meghalaya government had to take power from NTPC and if it did not take power, even then it had to pay for the set amount allotted for Meghalaya,” Sangma said.
“We are happy that after a lot of hard-work and even court cases, the NTPC has agreed and is working towards reallocating power to a different state,” he said.
Approximately 56 MW of power has been allotted to Tamil Nadu out of Meghalaya’s share of 86 MW. Sangma said the state government will not have to pay for it anymore.
Stating that due to this agreement, the state had to pay more than Rs 300-400 crore without using a single unit of power, he said, “We are hopeful the remaining 25-20 MW will be given to other states soon. With that, we will be completely free from this agreement.”
“We are going to see power being used by Tamil Nadu. This agreement has been signed or will be signed in a few days and hopefully, the rest of the power will also be reallocated,’ the CM added.
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission had earlier given temporary relief to the Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited by asking it as well as the NTPC to maintain status quo on the power purchase agreement.