The Hindu Business Line : Power capacity addition trips in first half of current fiscal

Faced with a daunting task of adding a record 78,577 MW power generation capacity during the current Plan period, the progress made by the Government during the first half of the current fiscal seems far from encouraging.

Against a target of adding 10,159 MW during the first six months of the current fiscal (2007-08 being the first year of the Eleventh Plan period), projects totalling only 2,645 MW have materialised, a shortfall of 7,514 MW, or 74 per cent of the target, according to the Government’s latest estimates.

The shortfall is despite the fact that several power projects scheduled to be completed within the Tenth Plan period were to have spilled over into 2007-08. The Government has been faltering on the generation capacity addition targets over the last three Plan periods, with achievement hovering around 50 per cent of the set target during each of the Plan periods.

“Six months is too short a time to judge the progress. Most of the spillover projects (from the Tenth Plan) would come through during the next six months or so,” a Government official involved in the exercise said.

The main reasons for slippages of projects during the Tenth Plan, as cited by the Power Ministry include manufacturing constraints faced by equipment suppliers, delays in placement of orders for main plants, tardy awarding work and hold-ups in investment decisions, environment and forest clearances, lack of preparedness of projects and techno-economic clearance of hydro-projects.

“Most of the reasons for slippages during the previous Plan’s targets still remain. The current Plan’s target is nearly four times what was achieved during the Tenth Plan and, therefore, a slow start in the first year itself is a clear precursor to a possible rollback of the target for the current Plan, as has happened during each of the last few Plan periods,” an analyst tracking the sector said.

Despite the obvious slow progress, the Government says it is working towards the target and has fixed stringent time-lines for placement of orders and project execution.

“While projects totalling a capacity of around 52,365 MW are currently under execution, the newly formed National Power Project Management Board has been asked to ensure that placement of orders for the balance capacity of 23,632 MW by Central and State power utilities is done by December this year,” a Power Ministry official said.

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