Telangana self-sufficient in power due to Cong foresightedness not due to BRS: CM Revanth

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said the BRS was misleading the people of the State that it had made the State self-sufficient in power.

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday claimed that it was due to the foresightedness of the Congress party to incorporate allocation of more share of power to Telangana in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act-2014 that helped the State in overcoming the power crisis during its initial years and that the BRS had no role in it becoming self- sufficient in power.

Taking part in the discussion on demand for grants in the Assembly, the Chief Minister said the BRS was misleading the people of the State that it had made the State self-sufficient in power. The peoples’ representatives of Telangana brought to the notice of then union minister S Jaipal Reddy that if the division of power was done on the basis of population, then Telangana would face power shortages, hence the division of power should be done on the basis of consumption, he said, adding that Jaipal Reddy took the matter to UPA chairman Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who agreed for it and the State got 53.46 percent share in power.

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Revealing the generation capacity, the Chief Minister said that at the time of Telangana formation the installed generation capacity of TGGenco was 4365.26 MW. During the bifurcation 2,960 MW of power was conceived and the projects were commissioned after Telangana came into being, he said, adding that the power situation in the newly formed Telangana was stable with the State getting an additional 1,800 MW beyond its installed capacity due to the special provisions in the AP Reorganisation Act. This enabled smooth power supply despite the BRS government’s failures, he argued.

Stating that the BRS government mismanaged the installation of new power plants, Revanth Reddy said the 1080 MW Bhadradri Thermal Power Station (BTPS) was planned with sub-critical technology and was envisaged to be completed in two years at a cost of Rs. 6.75 crore per MW. However, the cost escalated to Rs. 9.74 crore per MW with the project construction stretching to seven years, he said.

The 4,000-megawatt Yadadri Thermal Power Plant (YTPS) started with a zero date on June 1, 2015 with the estimated cost of Rs. 25,099 crore, but due to the delay the project cost has increased to Rs. 34,543 crore, he said, adding that the project cost was likely to cross Rs. 40,000 crore as it would take another two years to complete.

Finding fault with the BRS government for handing over the BTPS and YTPS construction works to BHEL on a nomination basis, the Chief Minister said by doing so the State had lost about Rs. 9000 crore. “BHEL has taken up a similar power project in Chhattisgarh 18 percent less than Telangana. If the BRS government too had invited tenders we would have also got similar concessions,”he said.

The Chief Minister alleged that to get kickbacks from Gujarat based power company India Bull, which had placed the order for sub-critical equipment with BHEL, BRS leadership gave the power plant contract to BHEL on a nomination basis.