New Delhi, July 30: Shri Bishnu Pada Ray, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, A&N Islands yesterday met Shri Manohar Lal Khattar, Hon’ble Union Minister of Power, Govt. of India and submitted a three page detailed letter highlighting the problems related to Power Supply regime in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
In his letter Shri Ray has stated that the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, which has a population of less than 6 lakhs, has been reeling under severe power crisis since last many years. The power cuts have become a day to day affair with a minimum power supply disruptions for half an hour to 45 minutes on daily basis in the capital city, a tourism destination. Sometimes the disruptions get prolonged. This problem has remained unsolved since the last many years.
He has further appraised in the letter that Port Blair is mostly depended on private players who are running diesel fed small generators for transmission into main grid. Despite this arrangement, there is acute deficit of power in the Islands. The average requirement of power at Port Blair is about 45 MW. But all the available power producing sources put together including department’s 4 MW power plants are unable to meet the requisites.
The problem of power crisis is not limited just to Island capital but is being experienced in all populated islands of the territory.
Ray has also pointed that the 33 KV and 11 KV tie lines in Port Blair are very old and requires immediate revamp to address the power cut crisis.
He appreciated the proposal of undersea power cable to Port Blair connecting the region to national power grid. However he observed that it may take many years to get the undersea cables laid and it can only be a long term solution. Currently the Islanders require a concrete intermediate solution to take care of the never ending power crisis through an expert team intervention.
Shri Ray suggested that the Power Minister may consider suitable size Nuclear Power Generators which can meet the Isles requirements.
In addition to the technical issues, he also pointed that the Electricity Department requires the revival of SE post and up-gradation of the same to CE post.
He also has suggested that the Engineers working in the Electricity department in the Isles require regular exposures and training on advanced technological developments in power sector, which the ministry may look into.