Haryana Power Regulatory panel formed

While Ailawadi is a retired IAS officer from the state, Ramesh Chander is a former Senior Deputy Comptroller General of India. He will be Member (Finance) of the Commission.

Chief Minister Bansi Lal, Home Minister Mani Ram Godara, Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, Minister of State for Power Attar Singh Saini and senior officials of the state government were present at the swearing-in ceremony.

Later talking to newsmen, Bansi Lal said P. S. Chobey, presently chief engineer with the Central Electricity Authority, will be sworn in as another member of the Commission after some time as he is due to retire shortly.

He said the Commission will issue new licences for power generation, fix power tariff and listen to consumer complaints.

He said the government would have no control over the Commission and recently constituted Haryana Power Generation Corporation (GENCO) and Haryana Power Transmission Corporation (TRANSCO).

He said that two companies for power distribution, one of them as a joint venture, would be constituted by dividing the state into two zones. The joint venture company would be constituted by inviting global tenders. It would take about six months to constitute these companies, he added.

Bansi Lal reiterated that there would be no retrenchment of the State Electricity Board employees, with the coming into being of the new entities. The entire staff would be absorbed in the new entities and terms and conditions of service of the Board employees would remain unchanged, he said.

He said that the farmers would continue to get power at subsidised rate of 50 paise per unit at present and the loss on this count would be borne by the government.

The Chief Minister said that power plants in the state would now be looked after by the GENCO, while the power transmission and distribution would be with the TRANSCO for the time being. He said that Ranjit Issar, chairman of the State Electricity Board till recently, would also look after power distribution in addition to his present assignment of chairman-cum-managing director of TRANSCO.

He said that 24-hour power supply would be ensured in the state by June-July next year with the addition of more power to the existing power availability in the state.

Bansi Lal said that a 146 MW gas-based power unit would be ready at the 410-MW Faridabad power plant by January next year and another 146-MW unit by March next year. The remaining power from this plant would be available by December next year, he added.

He said that 1279 MW additional power would be added to the existing 863 MW power in the state within next two years.

The sixth 210-MW unit of the Panipat Thermal Power Plant would be ready by December next year. Similarly, four units of the Panipat Thermal Plant, given to ABB company of Germany for modernisation, would be ready between March and December next year. These units would generate between 250 MW and 270 MW additional power with the increase of their power load factor (PLF) to 80 per cent from the present 27-31 per cent PLF.