Telangana takes Rs 8,923 crore debt off its discoms

Hyderabad: The TS government has taken over the Rs 8,923 crore debt burden of ailing discoms to improve the power situation in state.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that the two discoms (TSSPDCL and TSNPDCL) in the state have a total debt burden of Rs 11,897 crore. “To put the discoms back on track, the state government on Wednesday signed MoU in New Delhi to join the Centre’s Uday scheme and took over 75 per cent of debt burden as part of this,” Mr Rao said.

He said that TS had 2,700 MW of deficit when the state was formed in June 2014, but within two years it could add 5,039 MW, thus making it a ‘power cut free state’ within five months.

“TSSPDCL has debt burden of Rs 7,392 crore and TSNPDCL Rs 4,505 crore, thanks to the lopsided power policies adopted by rulers in undivided AP,” Mr Rao said.

The CM said that by joining in Uday scheme on Wednesday, 75 per cent of debt burden will be paid by state government.

“The remaining Rs 2,974 crore will be given as bonds with government guarantee by discoms. With this, the discoms will become debt-free. There will no need for them to pay Rs 890 crore interest on loans every year. They will get an opportunity to seek fresh loans. This year, the state government is giving Rs 4,584 crore subsidy to discoms. All these measures are taken in the larger interest of consumers,” Mr Rao said.

The CM said that as on date, TS has power generation capacity of 10,902 MW against 5,863 MW when the state was formed in June 2014.

“In these 10,902 MW, the power from hydel, solar and wind sources comprise 3,531 MW. But these are not much dependable. That means, the reliable power availability is only 7,371 MW. As on date, the power demand is 8,282 MW. This shows there is still a deficit of 1,000 MW. Despite this, we are able to supply quality power without any cuts across the state,” he added.

Mr Rao said the government was going ahead with the objective of achieving power generation of 5,880 MW through the newly-planned Bhadradri, Yadadri, Kothagudem power plants.

He said that 4,000 MW NTPC plant in Kothagudem will also come up in the state as promised in AP Reorganisation Act and the PM had laid the foundation for the first phase of this 1600 MW project in August last year.

Interestingly, with the state joining Uday scheme, the state government needs to revise power charges once in three months as mandated in the scheme.