
Contrary to popular belief that the northeastern region has a huge potential to produce power from its vast water resources, Assam produces just about 155 MW against the demand of 830 MW.
Admitting this, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that while central sector units were making available about 330 MW of power during peak hours, the state had a shortfall of over 250 MW.
8220;Right now only two of the state8217;s units are producing and that too only about 155 MW,8221; Gogoi said. He pointed out that at the moment the Namrup thermal power station was producing about 75 MW while the TPS at Lakwa was contributing 80 MW. The central power PSUs located in the northeastern region, which have a total installed capacity of 1235 MW, are supposed to provide 50 per cent of their output to the northeastern states. However, the actual availability from these units has remained much below the expected level.
8220;We are expecting the central PSUs to soon increase their output. We are also pinning our hopes on two major projects at Bongaigaon and Borgolai, to come up in the next few years,8221; Gogoi said. Both projects, however, remain a faraway dream.