core sector communique

Nearly 90,000 Villages and 1.5 Crore BPL Households Electrified Benefiting 7 Crore poor people: Shinde
Half a Decade of Powering Progress – Shinde Calls for Augmenting Supply of Green and Clean Energy
NTPC pays Interim Dividend of Rs. 2,473.64 Crore

Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Minister of Power has stressed the need for ensuring that growing energy needs of the people are met by augmenting supply of green and clean energy in commercially viable and environmentally sustainable manner. Releasing a booklet “Half a decade of powering progress - the achievements of Ministry of Power during the past 5 years”, here today, the Minister informed that during the period from January, 2006 to January, 2011, the additional capacity of over 50,000MW has been added which is more than the capacity added in the previous decade. The Government has also succeeded in fulfilling the dream of having, “One Nation One Grid”, he added. To ensure that benefits of the increased availability of electricity in rural areas, the implementation of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana has ensured that nearly 90,000 villages and over 1.4 crore BPL households have been electrified benefiting over 7 crore poor people. Shri P. Uma Shankar, Secretary (Power), CMD (NTPC) and senior officials from the Ministry and various PSUs were also present on the occasion.

Addressing on the occasion, Shri P. Uma Shankar, Secretary (Power) stated that the power sector in the country is growing at an unprecedented pace as can be gauged from the fact that the year 2009-10 saw a record addition in capacity of 9,585 MW for the first time ever in the history of the Indian power sector. The next 10 months from April 2010 to January 2011, overshot that record by adding 10,210 MW, the highest capacity addition in a single year in the last 60 years.

Implementation of the Availability Based Tariff (ABT) and its subsequent tightening, particularly in May 2010, helped improve the quality of bulk power supply and reduced grid failures. Further given its current depth, the national grid is no longer affected by minor system shocks. To improve the quality of power at the distribution end, state utilities are being asked to install automatic power factor correcting devices/ switched capacitors and promote the use of Static VAR compensators and dynamic voltage regulators at customer installations to improve power quality, Shri P. Uma Shankar informed.

Earlier, the NTPC Ltd. presented an interim dividend of Rs.3.00 per equity share being 30% of the paid-up equity share capital of the Company amounting to Rs.2,473.64 crore for the Financial Year 2010-11. A cheque amounting to Rs.2,090.21 crore was presented by Shri Arup Roy Choudhury, CMD (NTPC) to Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Minister of Power in the presence of Shri P. Uma Shankar, Secretary (Power) . This is the 18th consecutive year that NTPC has paid dividend.