Telangana CM assures industry of non-stop power supply from May

Hyderabad, March 11 (IANS) Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday assured industry of uninterrupted electricity supply from May this year.

He said power cuts may be necessary in March-April to meet the peak demand from the agriculture sector.

"From May, round-the-clock power supply will be made available. You can forget power cuts after this season," he told industrialists at the first annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Telangana chapter.

KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, said a multi-pronged strategy was being adopted to overcome the power shortage including purchase of electricity from other states and setting up of new plants.

"If there are power cuts after the summer, you can call me on the toll free number," he said.

He said the Telangana Generation Corporation and Singareni Collieries with an investment of Rs.40,000 crore would be generating 6,600 MW of power while the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) will be setting up a 4,000 MW plant for the state.

The chief minister said by the end of 2015, the thermal power capacity will go up from 4,320 MW to 7,779 MW and by the beginning of 2018 this will go up to 20,633 MW, making the state electricity surplus.

He said 2,100 MW of hydel power is also available in the state and this will also increase while 2,000 MW solar power is also likely to be generated.

To ensure uninterrupted supply to the industry in Hyderabad, KCR also mooted the idea of separate transmission lines by creating an island like in Mumbai.

KCR announced that 10 percent of water under the Telangana Water Grid project would be made available to industry.

Under the ambitious project, 1.27 lakh km of pipelines are proposed to be laid to provide drinking water to every household in the state.

The chief minister revealed that the AOP Jindal Group is keen to invest Rs.10,000 crore in the project.

The chief minister told the industrialists that a huge land bank of 20 lakh acres in the state was available for industry. Of this, 1.5 lakh acres is ready to be handed over to industry.

He said the government would take back 16,000 to 20,000 acres of government land allotted to various companies in the periphery of Hyderabad in the past. "They took the land 10 to 15 years ago but not used it. We will resume this land," he said.

KCR announced that an electronic hardware park and a cinema city would be developed over 35,000 acres of land as part of Information Technology and Investment Region (ITIT) at Rachakonda, a 15-minute drive from Hyderabad international airport.

He claimed that many pharma MNCs have evinced interest in Hyderabad Pharma City to be developed over 11,000 acres of land in Kandukur in Ranga Reddy district near the city. He said an international pharma university and a township would also be developed.

The chief minister claimed that the state has already announced the best industrial policy to ensure faster clearances of industrial proposals in a transparent manner with no scope for corruption.

He said a chasing cell in the chief minister's office would monitor and give all the clearances and there would be no need for the entrepreneurs to go around offices for approvals.

KCR said the state was waiting for the Centre to extend incentives to industry in Telangana as per the commitment made in Parliament.