Mumbai, Jan 12 (IANS) With an eye to the forthcoming elections, the Maharashtra government Monday announced marginal relief in load-shedding across the state from Tuesday.
Power Minister Sunil Tatkare said the move would benefit rural, urban, agricultural and non-agricultural zones, which were reeling under steep power cuts ranging from 3 to 13 hours daily.
From Tuesday, 478 cities and 18,000 non-agricultural villages and 16,000 agricultural villages will get a relief of up to 30 minutes. Until now, they were compelled to bear power cuts ranging from 3.15 to seven hours daily.
In the second worst-affected category, 16,000 agricultural villages, which faced between 11-13 hours' load-shedding daily, would now get an hour's relief, Tatkare said.
'The new measures shall be implemented strictly. In February, the power scenario in the state is expected to improve (further). We shall then announce a revised schedule, offering more relief,' Tatkare said.
Explaining the reasons for the latest move, Tatkare said power generation at the Uran Power Plant has gone up by 250 MW with availability of additional gas supplies.
Similarly, the Ratnagiri Power Plant is generating an additional 300 MW per day after crucial repairs to it were completed recently.
The state is also getting an additional 110 MW from the central power grid, which helped ease the power situation.
Apart from this, sufficient coal supplies have helped generate an additional 200 MW per day. The total extra power generated now is 860 MW per day, he said.
At present, Maharashtra has a peak demand of 15,000 MW per day but can fulfill only 10,400 MW, leaving a gap of around 4,600 MW per day. Of this, the state has now managed to generate additional 860 MW, enabling the government to ease the power cuts.
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