PANJIM: Amidst allegations of electricity connections not being released to industries that have been granted in-principle approval by the Investment Promotion Board (IPB), Power Minister Milind Naik on Wednesday indirectly claimed that his department is not taken into consideration by the Board while approving new proposals.
Naik said that the release of power to new industrial applicants, which demand higher load, depends upon feasibility. He admitted that till date there are 15-20 industrial applications pending before the department.
“No power department representatives are ever called for the IPB meetings. Without consulting us they approve the projects. Since we are not called for meeting we are not able to put up our point on whether there is power available with the State or we will have to purchase more from the grids,” Naik said, responding to a query.
“We cannot simply approve the proposals just because IPB has cleared them. We have to conduct feasibility study to know the power requirement and availability of power with State and then decide upon it,” the Minister said.
At the last IPB meeting, industry representatives had expressed displeasure over non-release of power, forcing Board chairman and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar to personally intervene and clear files of four major companies. In all 14 applicants had raised concerns before the Board, which is a single window clearance for all industrial purposes.
Stating that there is sufficient power available with the State to tackle the current domestic, industrial and commercial needs, Naik said that 15-20 industrial applications are pending before the department for clearance. “It is a lengthy process,” he added.
The State’s current power requirement is around 470 MW. Having no major power generation units of its own, the State gets most of its power from the Central sector.
As reported earlier, the NTPC Limited – the Central generation power Station – has sanctioned around 105 Mega Watt (MW) of power to Goa to be released in a phased manner over four years till 2019.
