PANJIM: Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar on Wednesday said that a separate power line will be brought from Colvale costing Rs 180 crore in a bid to tackle the power woes of the North Goa belt.
The decision was taken at an urgent meeting with Minister Jayesh Salgaonkar and Power Department officials regarding power supply problems in North Goa.
“Load shedding has become a severe problem in the coastal areas. Today’s urgent meeting with the Power Minister and with concerned EE, AE and JEs was to tackle this problem,” Madkaikar said.
He added, “Several temporary and permanent measures have been decided to fix the power supply problem of the North coastal belt. In these days there have been a lot of power fluctuation problems and load shedding across the coastal belt.”
He said that the department has already tendered for a 33kv line from Porvorim to Saligao and is the process of tendering a new substation at Saligao.
“We are aware of the major power supply problem in Bardez. The coastal belt is the worst affected. Hence, we have proposed a 220KV substation at Saligao. It will be tendered soon as we are preparing the estimates and also a consultant has been roped in. The new substation is expected to resolve most of the area’s issues,” he added.
The department had earlier also proposed to take up underground cabling along the Baga-Pernem coastal stretch in North Goa.
