Telangana government agrees to waive power shutdown charges for NHAI

The matter was taken to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy during a meeting with NHAI officials recently and that the Chief Minister had in principle agreed to waive the power shutdown charges.

Hyderabad: In order to speed up the process of construction of national highways in the State, the State government has reportedly agreed to waive the power shutdown charges being collected from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for shutting down power during shifting of high tension lines passing along highways.

According to sources, the matter was taken to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy during a meeting with NHAI officials recently and that the Chief Minister had in principle agreed to waive the power shutdown charges.

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The NHAI has to pay huge amounts in the form of power shutdown charges to the State government while shifting HT lines as the power utilities lose a large amount of revenue during the period.

The power shutdown charges were putting additional burden on the NHAI and even affecting the progress of the national highway construction work in the State.

Citing the example of the Khammam-Devarapalli Greenfield National Highway, which is being constructed in three packages, officials said the works of the highway were not progressing as the State government was demanding power shutdown charges from the NHAI.

During the shifting of the HT lines on the national highway, the power supply had to be suspended until the old high tension line was removed and a new one installed and for this, the State electricity authorities were demanding to pay the power shutdown charges as they would suffer loss.

Sources informed that the energy department authorities had written a letter to the NHAI asking it to pay Rs.65 crore to stop the electricity supply on this route. Following this, the NHAI chairman reportedly wrote a letter to the State government requesting it to waive the power shutdown charges.

Recently, the government had reportedly decided to waive these charges paving the way for the construction of the highway.