Hyderabad:Senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao on Saturday said Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s press conference on the power sector was misleading, and full of contradictions.
In a statement, Harish Rao, said in the Clean and Green Energy Policy earlier this year, Bhatti had said that Telangana’s contracted thermal capacity was 26,212 MW with a target of 49,104 MW by 2029-30, and 66,694 MW by 2034-35. The same document said that by 2034-35, Telangana aimed to generate 16,966 MW of thermal power; but a recent Cabinet note said the government wanted to build new plants totalling 2,400 MW.
While the policy said 14,164 MW of thermal power was available, the government now claimed a shortage of 5,000-6,000 MW. “Based on their own policy, the shortfall should be 2,802 MW,” Harish Rao said. “So which is correct? The rush to build new thermal plants for 2,400 MW is only to benefit from a `50,000-crore scam.”
Harish Rao noted that the Clean Energy Policy targeted 20,000 MW of renewable energy by 2030 which meant Telangana must add around 13,000 MW of solar power in the next five years. “Why is Telangana instead focusing on thermal plants? Bhatti saying no decision was taken on the type of plant at Makthal is laughable. The Cabinet announced that it would be a thermal plant in Makhtal,” Harish Rao said.
On coal transportation costs, Harish Rao said minister Sridhar Babu had said in the Assembly that coal transport to the Yadadri Thermal Plant would cost `803 crore per year. “Yet, he today claimed it was `1,600 crore. Which is true,” Harish Rao asked.
