Wednesday, January 27, 2010

NE power ministers demand more funds

Urging that more funds are required to ensure speedy economic growth of the North-East region, power ministers of three states namely Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura have called for enhancement of fund flow for development of Hydro Power Generation in the region. They claimed the region has enough power generation capacity with the hydro potential of the region at about 63,257 MW, which comprised almost 70% of the total potential of the country but that only a small fraction of it was being harnessed.
Nagaland power minister, Doshehe Sema said “Investors from the mainland refused to invest in infrastructure development in the North- Eastern region due to power problem compounded with bad law and order situation,” said Nagaland power minister, Doshehe Sema. He further said that the North-Eastern populace are not hostile as some mainlanders think. “They should know this and invest in the development of infrastructures if they wanted to develop the region,” he added. “It is not a “land of animals” but “people too settle,” he stressed. For the sake of uniform development he sought investment.
Refusal on the part of investors to enter in the region has greatly affected the economy as no industries could be taken up, he argued. According to the Nagaland minister, there was no industry worth mentioning in the region. He pointed out that the region has plenty of natural resources in respect of water, solar and minerals but they remained a waste.

Seeking the attention to the problem areas, Tripura power minister, Manik Dey said one of the major issues of concern to all the states of the region was the limitation of transmission network in the region. It seriously impedes transmission of power from state to the grid and from grid to the state and in matter of inter-state transmission, he stated.
Manipur power minister, Phungzathang Tonsing expressed dissatisfaction with the power scenario in the region stating that it was far below satisfactory. He said that the present effective capacity of the region was about 2108 MW, out of which, 1268 was from hydro generation and 840 MW from thermal and gas generations.

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