Delhi govt seeks to set up new power plants, to bid for coal blocks

New Delhi: The Delhi government today decided to bid for coal blocks with an aim to set up new power plants and increase its own electricity generation from current 1,000 mega watts to 4,000 mega watts. Sources said Delhi government will write a letter to the Centre seeking its view on the matter.[caption id=“attachment_2038989” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Getty Images[/caption] They said government plans to set up its own coal-based power plants to meet the rising power demand of the city which had touched 6,000 MW in the last summer. In its manifesto, the AAP had promised to make Delhi self-reliant in power generation. Currently, the Delhi government power plants generate around 1,000 MW. The city government had set up a power gas-based power plant at Bawana at a cost of around Rs 4,500 crore but the plant was generating around 300 MW due to shortage of gas supply. Power was a major focus area of AAP during the election campaign. The city gets 3,500 MW of power from various power plants including of NTPC, under the Central quota. As per projection by Central Electricity Authority, the power demand in Delhi will jump to 8,700 MW by 2017. Delhi government, which along with Haryana was given a coal block in Madhya Pradesh in 2006. But it could not go ahead with exploration of the Mara II Mahan block in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh due to regulatory hurdles. The block was primarily allocated to Delhi and Haryana for supply of coal to the Jhajhar power plant in Haryana. PTI