Power Minsiter Piyush Goyal on Monday called for greater private sector participation in electricity distribution. Goyal was speaking to reporters after a meeting with bankers to discuss the funding issues to the power sector.

“We need to have more private sector participation in power distribution,” said Goyal. “We have to make this sector self-sustaining and get the support of states for this.”

“In the next few months, you can expect a significant thrust to enhance the transmission and distribution infrastructure in the country from wiling states, banks and the central government,” the Minister added.

Fuel supply, power purchase

Meanwhile, Goyal informed that the bankers had expressed concerns relating to fuel supply issues and power purchase problems as their main concerns with the sector.

“In today’s meeting, we came to a consensus that power generation is a national asset,” he said.

“We are not looking at great changes in the Reserve Bank of India regulations as we believe that the solutions lie within the system. Everybody is ready to work together to resolve the problems of the power sector.”

Goyal said he was very confident of giving results in a short time and said that bankers will meet with the Power Ministry officials after a month to discuss the last mile funding requirements.

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