DAVANGERE: The state government has decided to set up 157 rural power stations to prevent loss of power during transmission and store energy to supply quality power to rural consumers, said Minister for Energy and Food, Shobha Karandlaje here on Friday. Karandlaje was in Davangere to inaugurate the 66 KVA power sub-station at Mahajenahalli village in Harihar taluk. The minister told reporters, at the KPTCL guest house, that construction of the proposed rural power stations would cost the state exchequer Rs 1,500 crore and will be done in a phased manner. The state has decided to give three phase power for six hours, though availability of power is lost in transmission due to shortage of grids, she said. She added that sufficient power stations in villages and setting up of more power sub-stations would certainly prevent theft and transmission losses.At present the demand for power in Karnataka is 17 per cent more than the current supplies, compared to eight per cent in other states, she said. “The increase in demand is mainly due to several industries coming to set up their units in the state, after the global investors’ meet that look place last year,” Karandlaje said. But to meet this demand the proposed power projects are yet to be commenced, she said.Power from the 2,000 MW power generation plant at Chattisgarh, Yeramaras thermal power plant near Raichur, third-stage power plant at Bellary and gas based plant near Bidadi in Bangalore rural district are not reaching, due to non availability of coal linkage and also shortage of coal supply to state from the Centre, she said. ‘State to branch out on Open Tendering’Chitradurga: The state will have to face a power crisis if the Congress-led UPA government doesn’t provide Karnataka’s share of coal immediately, said Shobha Karandlaje here on Friday. She told media persons that each and every thermal power generation unit should have minimum stock for a period of 20 days. “But in the case of Karnataka, we don’t even have a single rake of coal and are generating power using coal on a day-to-day basis,” she said. The centre is providing sufficient coal to states ruled by the Congress and its allies. They should stop this discrimination and look in to Karnataka too, she urged. The Central grid is providing 700 MW of power to Tamil Nadu, 300 to Andhra Pradesh, 150 to Kerala but not a single unit to Karnataka. “Therefore, we have planned to purchase power through open tendering and the Central government is not ready to provide a corridor for the transmission of power,” she alleged.
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