Meghalaya Power Minister Abu Taher Mondal has urged the Power Ministry to continue the Central financial assistance for small hydro power projects in the State which has been stopped by the ministry.
Mondal was speaking at the North East Region Power Ministers’ Conference held at Guwahati today. The conference was chaired by Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
Mondal also requested that the detailed project report (DPR) submitted by Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited (MePDCL) for Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) Phase-II to be approved at the earliest.
He also shared the matters related to the gap in funding from the Central government between the sanctioned cost and the discovered cost for RDSS Phase-I.
Matters pertaining to the development of Pumped Storage Projects (PSPs) in Meghalaya were also highlighted by Mondal who also sought financial support from the Central government for development of PSPs.
Speaking on the occasion, Meghalaya Commissioner and Secretary (Power) Sanjay Goyal reflected on household electrification to allow funding based on actual households electrified, rather than sanction on the basis of estimated households, which was also accepted by the Power Ministry.
The conference was also attended by Power Ministry joint secretary Shashank Mishra, deputy secretary Jameer Uddin Ansari, Central Electricity Authority chairman Ghanshyam Prasad, Rural Electrification Corporation chairman and managing director Vivek Kumar Devangan, officials from REC, PGCIL, NHPC among others.
