Govt taking steps to relax load shedding period: power minister

SHILLONG, APR 5: Minister in-charge Power Abu Taher Mondal on Wednesday assured that the government and the MeECL are working round the clock to provide some relief to the citizens in view of the loadshedding being imposed in the state.

Mondal admitted that the people are suffering and that the government is really concerned about the problem. He said that the load shedding was done out of compulsion.

“Definitely, the government and the MeECL are working round the clock to see that if any relief can be given to the consumers…the moment we improve our situation, as I told you it depends on how the power is available in the grid or we can go for swapping then we will relax the period.”

Mondal said that despite the scanty rainfall which is affecting the hydel power projects depending on the rainwater, the state is also having some added problems due to the shutdown of important power projects like Khandong and Kopili Hydro Electric Project. Due to this, the state is losing quite a huge quantum of power which is not coming to the grid.

He also informed the state also has its own problems with the power projects at home due to renovation and repair. We are not able to put the optimum power in the grid and due to that this (is happening.

The power minister said the central share of power is around 72 million units and the state’s own generation is around 16 million units.

“At present we are having a liability of around 88 million units and our requirement is 200 million units. So we are short by 112 million units and this is the hardest fact we are facing now,” he added.

Mondal said the power projects under shutdown include Kopili stage-I of 200 MW from where the state gets 35MW as share, Khandong power station of 50 MW (state share is 8.51MW) and Kopili stage-II of 25 MW (state share is 3.45 MW).

“As far as the Myntdu Leshka hydel power project is concerned, two units (of 42MW) are also shutdown now while Umiam also, we are also having two units of 60MW which are also like that,” he said adding that the reason being due to damage and requirement for annual maintenance.

By Our Reporter